LIMNS UPON A LIMB

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LIMNS UPON A LIMB 6-28-11

I’d missed out on getting to the beach for a long time. So when an opportunity came up for me to go, I was so glad. The lovely sunny day gave promise of a chance to enjoy beauty. However, on arrival at the beach, the ocean was blanketed with fog. Most of the gentle waves showed only as blurs. Nor did the mist lift as the day progressed.

When one kind of beauty is obscured, it becomes imperative to look for other signs of the unexpected, of liveliness and God’s presence.

The foghorn blared its rhythmic toot. Three pelicans flew by in formation, just far enough away to be a bit blurred by fog, but recognizeable in shape. And the close-in landscape gave a clear perspective. Several dozen seagulls lurked in the parking lot, in hopes of mooching some tourist’s leftover food. Dogs romped in the sand. People searched for agates, strolled along the sandy strand (ultimately disappearing into the fog), or lounged with their backs to great logs.

I took pictures of beach pebbles deposited in great flowing masses by the tides, tumbling rivers of stone upon stone upon. And then there were the driftwood logs, bleached silver-white by sun and weather, scoured into shapes and showing knobs and slivers and grainy patterns.

There amidst the strewn drifted woods, I discovered the drawn lines/signs on a longish, whitened log limb –
They had been limned in charcoal (perhaps taken from a campfire?) by an unknown passerby.

I’ve been to the beach many times. But this is the first time I’ve happened on charcoal drawings, or a log used as an artist’s canvas.

Some of my days seem blanketed with fog. With a mist which doesn’t wish to lift. So that my future steps, and even motivation for the present moment, seem blurred and not very hopeful or lively. But even in such times, God leaves his limns/signs for me to seek out, or come across unexpectedly. He gives me cause, and pause, to appreciate the Great Artist of all Nature, the Mighty Creator of all Life.

I take heart. “I am my beloved’s, and he is mine; his banner over me is love.” And that thought is comfort which never leaves me out-on-a-limb!


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This post is also shared with:
L. L. Barkat's Seedlings in Stone
"On, In and Around Mondays"



and Laura Boggess' The Wellspring,"
"Playdates with God."