It seems like the last cruise I went on I was struck with the sunrise and sunsets. Therefore, I took so many pictures of each (I did this time too). But this time I was really struck with the different colors of the water. Maybe since we left from Houston port this time, instead of the typical Galveston port, the colors of the water stuck me. When you leave from Galveston you are out in open water pretty soon but when you leave from the Houston ship channel you are in the channel for a long time (similar to when you leave from New Orleans) so you are in that yukky Texas water for a long time. The water in Cozumel and Calica is just spectacular. I absolutely love the color aqua and that must be another reason I love their water. Terry explained how the water that is not polluted (like Houston Ship channel and La.) gains its color from the depth of the ocean. Now it is all the very same salty ocean water….but depending on the depth (and if it is being used for a dump place) its colors change.
I couldn’t help but think how the “colors of the water” is an accurate representation of our walk with Christ. The murky, muddy brown water represents people without Christ, who have no Savior. Now wouldn’t it be a nice fairy tale to think that as we grow older and even enter into “talking the talk” with church attendance and even actually accepting Christ as our personal savior that we would actually go deeper in our walk as when the water changes due to the depth of the water/depth of our understanding of God. But I’ve come to realize in recent years that our colors/walk don’t just deepen and change due to a head knowledge of what we believe but it happens when we begin that relationship with our heavenly father/Jesus Christ. For our walk/depth of color to deepen we must read His word (understand HIS word), love HIM with a whole heart and pure love.
As we grow in our relationship with our heavenly father, desiring to abide in Him and His word we grow in our dependence on Him and reflect more of Him. Just as when the ocean gets deeper that same water becomes such a deep blue and a pure color. We go from the murky brown to green, aqua, different shades of blue to the dark blue. My prayer is that HE would be my first thought in the morning, that I would desire to make every decision throughout the day based on what I know through His word and lay my head down at night praying for others. I want my color/walk to deepen. I love that my walk upon the way leads me from one beautiful place to another.
What really saddens me are the people that are in murky, brown water and choose to stay there.
Just today the pastor pointed out that James 1:27 which says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” He said people always point to that scripture to talk about looking after orphans and widows-which is good and right but we must do all it says. Unfortunately I see how easy it is to be polluted by the world unless we really understand the distinction between light and darkness. So many settle for gray.
