I heard a familiar verse the other day, but it took on new meaning. A child was singing the song, “America” and came to the line that said,” o beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain…” Waves of grain. I had never thought about waves on dry land. I had seen the swaying stalks of wheat when the winds blew. Just didn’t make the immediate connection to waves.

To me, waves were always in the ocean or larger body of water. The kind of waves that could rock and roll a boat. The kind of waves that, if you dared venture into their territory, could knock you down into the surf or even take you under. Waves, that if you knew how to follow the lead of the rushing water, you could join in for an exhilarating ride.  Waves are a part of life in more ways than I realized.

I have felt the waves of fear and waves of sadness in my life. And I have felt waves of joy and gratitude. Both exist to remind me that movement from one season to the next, or from one moment to the next is necessary to grow me in my journey of faith. 

The Lord of Sea and Sky made waves for a reason. Just look to the Gospels. 

In the Gospel of Mark Chapter 4 the disciples had just heard about the importance of the Sower who broadcast gospel seeds into all kinds of soil, then Master said, beginning verse 35, Let’s cross to the other side. So, they got into a boat and started out. But then came the storm. When they cried out in fear, Jesus does two things: In verse 39, Jesus acknowledges and calms the waves and in verse 40, acknowledges the disciples fear. 

Then just two chapters later in Mark’s Gospel, the disciples encounter waves again. Immediately after the 5000 were fed with a few loaves and some fish, Jesus insisted the disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake – to the other side – while he went to pray. Disciples were on the boat and began battling wind and waves, and Jesus walked out on the waves, telling them not to be afraid. “Take courage, I am here”. 

Both times the disciples were going to the other side – to encounter new people, to do a new thing – and they were initially met with waves. Waves that made them initially fearful and waves that tested the strength of their faith in Jesus. 

It’s interesting that waves are said to be an energy transport, a disturbance moved from one place to another by the transportation of energy. While other waves like sound waves are not seen, water waves in the ocean are readily seen – and yet there is still more going on than we realize.  Did you realize from every 10 breaths we take, 7 come from the ocean? To get scientific for a moment- phytoplankton that we don’t see, microscopic plants carried by the ocean’s currents and waves give us life-giving oxygen. We don’t see them, so we forget about the benefits of life they offer. 

We don’t see the wind but we see its effects of strengthening the reeds and stalks so they can grow all the way into harvest. We don’t see the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the holy wind, that moves us deeper in our faith than we can go on our own. But He is there to move us deeper and deeper still.

“Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have rolled over me.”  Psalm 42:7 

The psalmist reflects on a time when David and other exiles feel separated by trials and troubles that keep knocking them down and separating them from true peace. Still, he keeps his faith in God and uses the waves as a reminder that the Almighty is more powerful and more present than any challenges or fear.

I can relate. Wave after wave seems more like a lament of one thing after another thing going wrong.  And yet, in the contemporary Christian song, Voice of Truth, there is a line that goes: 

“And the waves they don’t seem so high; from the top of them looking down”. 

It comes back to what I fix my eyes on: the storm or the Savior; the unknown future or the unending love of the Lord, fear in what I see or faith in what I know and believe about my Jesus. Waves in life are simply a way that God moves us beyond ourselves and to the other side of what we know – in challenge and in comfort. Because after all, the mystery of God is also beyond our understanding.

God is always at work doing a new thing. I can choose to see the waves of change as a negative or I can see the waves of change as a positive.

Jesus acknowledges that we face fear in the waves, but it is in the waves where he meets us. No matter the situation, the Great Wave-Walker is in control. The waves will never take us out but are a means to receive Holy Spirit power to move us beyond where we are to where we need to be. 

The beaches near where I live are reminders that waves are constantly reshaping the landscape around us. By trying harder to keep things the way they are, maybe we are blocking the transformation we need and the new direction we need to go. . Transformation comes from acknowledging the fear but moving forward in faith. We most likely only will see the waves, but there is an unseen good that will come.