JENNY’S CORNER - SUSSEX DOWNS

July 1999

 

"The sea is His, for it was He who made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
(Psalm 95.5)

Recently I experienced the thrill of crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe in superseacat Two (enhanced when I discovered a real leaping cat as the emblem on the hull - being a great cat lover this seemed to highlight that I was in the right place!). As her powerful engines started to churn out the seawater at the back, the beauty of land and sea brought a surge of happiness to me. Man can do many wonderful things but the very essence of creation and the life that throbs through it is certainly that of a loving super intelligent and creative God.

The sea and ships have long inspired men to adventure and praise, as the lovely verse from John Masefield’s "Sea Fever" so wonderfully portrays:

And so my nautical moment has continued by my finding on the Web, whilst searching for more about Henry Van Dyke whose quotes I am often coming across which say so much to me, his Parable of Immortality, likening the experience of death to that of a ship setting out on a voyage:

"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!'

Gone where? Gone from my sight ... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, 'There she goes!' there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, 'Here she comes !'."