Message in a bottle
...metry between two separate worlds. I spotted a rock that resembled the shape of a lawn chair; the perfect place to rest and clear ones mind. I sat down on my stone lounger, closed my eyes and rested. At least I tried to rest; it didn’t come easily. Instead my mind flooded with thoughts of the coming school year and what was to come after graduation, but most of all my friends the Walkers. The Walkers had played an integral part in my life for the previous six months. I met their daughter, Betsy, at an earlier camp and we became fast friends. Soon after, Betsy had invited me to her house and we would talk about God on a weekly basis. I, being a self proclaimed atheist, never agreed with her on her Christian view. Though somehow she always won; I suppose she always seemed more right. Eventually I had a change of heart and converted to Christianity. She and her family helped me tremendously early on in my faith. There wasn’t a question they couldn’t help me answer. But that summer she went off to college in Indiana and her family followed. Felling somewhat abandoned and overwhelmed at the thought of another school year, then possibly college, I sat and began to pray for an answer. “ Father, I need your help. I don’t know what to do. I’m tired, I’m scared and I feel alone. I don’t think I can handle this. I feel like I’m about to break. Please, right now, just tell me what to do.” There was nothing. No booming voice came from the heavens, no thunder and lightening. Not a sound at all. Discouraged, I decided to just rest and watch the lake. If I couldn’t find mental and emotional rest then I was sure going to get it physically. I had brought my portable cd player along with me. I put my headphones on; comfortably sprawled myself out on the rock and watched the tide lap up onto the rocks down below. On one of the rocks there was a small twig standing upright, firmly planted in one of the rocks’ crevices. It looked almost like a little person. I watched as wave after wave hit. When a wave would wash over the twig it would bend backward into the rock and as the wave subsided the little soldier would stand right back up tall and proud and seemingly unphased. I sat in astonishment at this twig. Something so small and so fragile should, it seemed to me, snap under the pressure of such weight. It never even weakened. It sprang back up just as strong, possibly even stronger than before. Eventually I grew tired of the repetition of this never ending struggle and once again concentrated on the bigger picture; the gr...