While visiting the coast in February my husband and I booked a room in Depoe Bay, Oregon. A charming little town on Highway 101 north of Newport and south of Lincoln City, its scenery offers a breathtaking view of the Pacific Coast and the city lays claim to maintaining the world’s smallest harbor.
From our balcony we could see the ocean rushing up to the land, breaking just before it splashed over the highway. In a winter storm, I could only imagine what the fierce waves might do. To the south of our deck, the beach wandered like a slithering snake in and out of inlets all the way to the Heceta Head lighthouse. To the north, jutting rock and rugged terrain hovered over the ocean below.
I admit I’m in love with the north Pacific coast. I’ve seen California’s beaches and glimpsed the Atlantic once from a ferry, but nothing compares to the breathtaking rock and menacing mountain cliffs that dot the Pacific ocean’s coastal landscape. The highway meanders in and around steep hillsides. Beyond every corner waits another breathtaking view of the ocean—the whitewater and the huge, crashing waves tumble over one another in a hurry to reach the sand.
When I consider the mighty hand of the One who created this beauty, I stand in awe.
In Matthew 8:27-28 Jesus, standing up in a boat in the middle of a storm said, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” And the men who were in the boat with him said, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (NKJV)
Watching the rage and fury of the ocean outside my motel, I still wonder at His might.