Psalm 118:24

This is the day which the Lord has made; 
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

My friends, this is our first celebration of Family Sunday. We’re trying some new things this morning, and one is a combination Junior and Senior sermon.

I want to tell you all a little story about something that happened to me this week. One of the things I love to do is paint. Do you like to paint or color pictures? I brought an example to show you of the kind of painting I do. I love to paint on seashells. Do you ever see those wonderful big oval seashells at the seashore? I love to paint on them. I paint seascapes and lighthouses and sailboats.

But you know what? I’ve had a problem lately, because for the last few years I haven’t been able to find any seashells like that. I haven’t been able to find any of those great big wonderful clam shells. They’re white and clear and beautiful. And all I’ve been able to find have been broken pieces.

But let me tell you what happened to me this week. Monday is supposed to be the pastor’s day of rest. Sometimes I actually do rest. And this Monday I got down to the seashore for about an hour. I thought, I’ll just go look at the water for a while. I went down and looked at the water, and in the sand and in the water, guess what I found! I found big clam shells, beautiful round ones, perfect for painting. I thought, Wow! This is great!

What should I do? I gathered a couple that were on the beach, but most of them were in the water. I looked about 20 feet out in the water, where the waves were crashing. There was a bar of beautiful pieces of shells. They were purple, and they were sparkling under the waves. The water was churning over them and mixing them up. And in there were great big beautiful clam shells.

I needed those clam shells. Thankfully, I had my bathing suit and T-shirt on, so I went into the water after the clam shells. The water was the warmest it has been all summer. It was beautiful. I gathered as many clam shells as I could hold, and I brought them in to shore. I had about a dozen. Then I went back into the water to get a whole bunch more – I’d seen so many out there – but there were fewer. I grabbed what I could, and I brought them in to shore, and I said, “I’ll get some more.”

I went back out into the water, and do you know what happened? They were all gone. The tide had changed in that brief moment and taken all the big clam shells back out to sea. I couldn’t find any.

I went back and looked at the ones I had, and I said, “Thank you, God, that you gave me this opportunity to find these.” I looked back out to see if the shells had come back, but they hadn’t.

The Bible says, “This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” God is putting opportunities in front of you. What do you think would have happened if I had said, “Oh, I’ll go out in the water later. I’ll do something else now. I don’t feel like going after those clam shells now”? What would have happened? I wouldn’t have any shells. They all would have been gone.

But God gives us the opportunity, and we have to say, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” God puts the opportunities in front of us. God gives us the opportunity to learn stuff in school, and to say “I love you” to people. And God gives us the chance to pray to Him. Don’t put it off. Don’t say, “Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel more like doing it.” Take advantage of the treasures from the sea that God is sending you today.

Say the scripture out loud: “This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” God loves you, and I do, too. Amen.