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Mark's Musings - Day 3 (Thursday)
Day 3 (Thursday)California is full of ‘beautiful’ people. I don’t mean beautiful as in beautiful, I mean beautiful as in totally paranoid about the way you look. Don’t get me wrong, I admire people who make the most of their appearance, but the culture here seems to be ‘only go on the beach if you look like a twiglet’, and, ‘don’t hit the mall unless you’re dripping in designer wear’. Given that the beach and the mall were the two places we visited today, the beautiful culture was a major topic of conversation. So upon my return to Heaton we’ll start a push for white teeth, tango’d skin, Armani suits, and... cosmetic surgery!!
Well, to the beach. It was all going swimmingly (sorry), until a certain Mrs Jensen, accompanied by yours truly, were absolutely wiped out by a wave the size of the Empire State building. The fact that we eventually finished halfway up the beach was a moment of great bewilderment (not to mention, near death) to the two of us, but a source of amusement to the rest of the beach. If you hear reports of the Californian Tsunami on news at ten, and you see two pale looking Brits, unintentionally being thrown about in the surf, you’ll know who they are.
Anyway, up early in the morning, and off for the Redding leg of the journey, and to matters of deeper spiritual significance.
“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” (Ps 23:6a) I love this notion of a God who pursues us with loads of good stuff and lifelong mercy and love. Like the shepherd who sets out to find the one sheep in Luke 15, so the covenant keeping, faithful, loving shepherd, continues to get a kick out of his relentless pursuit of human beings.