A man I’ve never met and to whom I’ve never spoken sent me an email about 1:30 am this past Monday night / Tuesday morning. He explained that he lived in Tennessee and had gone through a divorce last year. As a believer he had been struggling with the pain and guilt of divorce. “I have spent the last 14 months trying to reconcile the incongruence of my life, mistakes we both made, and the sin and forgiveness that stares me in the heart every morning I wake,” he wrote. Continuing he said, “God’s forgiveness has been the simplest and yet the most difficult request to seek.”
He described a trip this past weekend to the beach…to a house he owns in Surfside Beach, SC. It was his first trip to the house since the divorce. While running on the beach, he spotted “an unusual teal colored starfish with a stringed message attached.” It read, “We came all the way from First Baptist Rock Hill, SC to let you know Jesus loves (hearts) you!”
He continued, “God knew I needed that simple yet profound truth to resonate in my heart.”
I was blessed and confused as I read his email. I didn’t know anything about anyone from our church leaving a starfish on the beach. I imagined it was something one of our members probably did as a way to witness to God’s love.
That Sunday afternoon I had stopped by the office after lunch and a group of our GAs (Girls In Action mission group) had just returned from a weekend trip. Some of them gave me big hugs, mentioned that someone had gotten car sick on the way home, and were generally hyper like young girls tend to be. I didn’t think more about it until I showed the email to Will Beaty on Tuesday. He then showed me what had been posted on our FBC Facebook page.
Those GA girls had left starfishes with that message on the beach at Surfside that weekend. The man from Tennessee had found one of them. But not just any man – a man who needed reminding that God still loved him. I was blown away by how God orchestrates things.
The man closed his email by saying, “Thank you to your church for answering the call to ‘go.’ When we ‘go’ we don’t always see the fruit of our labor of love. I just thought I would take a moment to share one story of a life touched by the simple ‘find’ of that starfish on the sand.”
I’ll close with two brief comments:
“Praise God” and
“Thank you girls. I’m proud of you.”
Pastor Steve Hogg
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