Sidewalk Prophets

Unfathomable

The ocean is inspiring, especially at night. Never could I paint with words all the emotions that my heart feels when I gaze upon the ocean cradling Mars and all the constellations that form dragons and princesses in the sky above. The same ocean softly waltzes a shifting trail of moonlight onward towards the obscure infinity, but upon the shore roar violent breakers that send scents of salt and foam flailing into the air landing like a subtle sting upon my toes. I set before that natural canvas for an hour with a ukulele and sang all that came into my head, unintentional, unsuspecting, and unadulterated. I imagine most was complete gibberish, but it felt freeing.

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I started to ask myself why the ocean makes me so joyful. The answer came to me right away… it is unfathomable. I love the unfathomable. The ocean is so vast and endless and deep that we will never reach the end, it is a beautiful mystery. We know the surface, the sandbars, and the jellyfish, but there is an entire world that we will never know just below that surface, underwater volcanoes, grand chasms, and unimaginable life. The same can be said of the stars. I love them and their unfathomability. It was the same feeling I had when I first learned that ants made homes underground. Those tiny creatures we step on without a thought had homes and family and purpose, profoundly unfathomable.

That is when I realized that it wasn’t just me that loved unfathomable things. Every single movie that Pixar has made deals in some respects with the unfathomable. Take for example “Wall-E,” “A Bugs Life,” “Ratatouille,” “Up,” and “Finding Nemo.” The first deals with the vastness and beauty of space, another with a new world of infinitesimal smallness, another with that same small world from a slightly larger perspective, the next with the desire to fly into the endless unfathomable blue sky, and the last with the aforementioned ocean. Even the “Toy Story” trilogy and “Monsters Inc.” deal with the unfathomable depth of a child’s imagination. “The Incredibles” is all about ordinary people with unfathomable powers, which is why I love dreams and their ability to grant me such powers.  “Cars” may be a stretch, but the desire to turn time back to simpler days is one that haunts many, and the past is equally as unfathomable as the future.

So if it the unfathomable that delights me, why is it so? I think that answer is fairly simple as well. We love the unfathomable because it gives us a small glimpse of God. It reminds us that we are just His children who can’t and don’t need to explain everything to be happy. After all, it must take a divine touch to create the infinite. The ocean, stars, sky, time, mind, and dreams all are a reflection of the beauty of God.

One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 40:22, “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” God controls the infinite and governs the unfathomable. Still, He gives us glimpses at His masterpiece so that we might take delight in the power of His hand. The ocean is inspiring, especially at night.