We got to go to the beach the other day, and it was just glorious. I love to pick up a few special shells to add to my collection each time we’re there, a decorative keepsake of wonderful memories. Usually I gravitate towards the bigger shells, or ones that still have their color–as yet unbleached white by the sun, or a piece of washed up coral or a sand dollar…

But this trip, my favorite shell was different.

And more real than a child putting his ear to a conch shell to “hear the sea,” that little shell spoke to me.

You see, sometimes I believe the lie that God is not really interested in the details of my life, the million miniscule things I’m embarrassed I’ve asked for in prayer… Or the million more I’ve thought too inconsequential with which to even bother Him.

But that intricately woven little shell–washed up on the beach amongst trillions of other shells and shards and grains of sand–was so beautifully made and full of detail that the banner of God’s love it represented was so much greater than its diminutive size.

Because I thought… If God is interested enough to weave such intricate detail into such an object, surely He is just as (or even more) interested in the details of my life, His own daughter.

“How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand” (Psalm 139:17-18a).

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

So, sweet friends, maybe God is trying to speak His love to your heart this week through His creation? Do tell!

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