Hosea 1:10
“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Mark 1:19-20
“When [Jesus] had gone a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.  Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.”

 Acts 21:4a, 5-6
“Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days…But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way.  All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.”

Gracious Lord, your Spirit in love fathers every spiritual family.

In the unlikely sanctuaries of beaches and boats, you gather small bands of sisters and brothers.  Your church, like so many grains of living sand, grows through a few who will follow.

Keep us kneeling together as small handfuls of the faithful.  May we be disciples who sail or come ashore in answer to your call.

We ask this in the name of Christ, who waded into a sea of suffering to bring us safely onto joyful shores.

Listen to ‘Deliverance‘ by Strahan