Smelser Beach trip

I keep thinking that not much has happened since me last post for me to talk about but it just hit me that is completely not true!

First of all Kurt and I spent the last week in June at the beach with his family. Picture this, 15 people (give or take a couple) in a three bedroom condo! Needless to say things get interesting, but I love it!

For those wondering, yes, I did go to Gulf shores, and yes, it was covered in oil. Kurt received a text message from a cousin that was already down there saying the beach was covered! Apparently, from what we heard the day we got down there was the worst oil cover yet for that area.

I knew Kurt was up to something when we hit Foley. After being on the road for 5 hours on lots of little two lane roads and getting a ticket in Bay Minette, Kurt says, "Hey I think I want to eat at Lambert's." I of course jump at the offer because our family had a tradition of stopping there on our way to the beach every year and I hadn't done that in so long! We had enjoyed a wonderful meal of catfish and good ole' home cooked veggies when Kurt informs me he wants to go walk around the outlet mall. Not, "Hey lets stop in Nike and maybe look at the Bose store," but "I want to WALK AROUND the outlet mall." Once we had gone in and out of a couple stores and are leisurely making our way around the enormous outdoor mall I look up at me sweet sweet husband and just get a feeling he is up to something. I suddenly remember the text message from that morning, and called his bluff! Sure he may have wanted to go to a few stores but his real agenda was stalling me from seeing the beach. This turned out to be just what I needed.

Thankfully when we got there, finally, the rest of the family had gone out to dinner. I went to the balcony and took one look at the beach and I quickly felt tears come to my face. It was this helpless heart broken feeling as I looked out on this paradise that I visited every year. As a child I built sandcastles, in those awkward middle school years I learned how to boogie board, swam to the sand bar, and played football on the beach with my friends, as a teenager I went on walks and sunk my toes into the soft white sand, soaked up the sun and relaxed in the breeze. Perhaps the most memorable was as a college student when I was proposed to on the sparking white sand that was drenched in the colors of a breath taking sunset sinking down into a blue green sea. These memories flooded my mind as a stared horror struck at the brown oily mess in front of me. It was as if this place was part of me, had grown up with me, changed with me, and even helped shape me. It is a place I love and it is being defiled.

This feeling of helplessness makes me step back and remember God's sovereignty. As terrible the explosion and oil spill have been God is still in control. Not me, not the Manager of the BP corporation, not the guy down the street, but GOD. The God who caused the ten plagues to rain down on Egypt so that Pharaoh would let His nation go. The God who promised Abraham to make him a father of many nations, and the God who sent his precious son to save a world of lost sinners. God is in control and I am not. I am very thankful for that!