Shells

We are currently in Florida as I am attending a conference. This morning I went for a walk on the beach.

As I walked I noticed many shells on the beach and started to pick some up.

These were my favorites- perfectly formed and beautiful. However they all still had animals inside of them. For me to keep them would have meant their death. So after taking this picture I threw back into the ocean so the seagulls could not get to them.

Here are the shells that I kept. Most are broken and not complete. But they are still beautiful. And beautiful even in their state of brokenness.

Here are the two lessons: First, when we try to own beautiful natural things, or even other people, we often damage them in the process.

The second is that even broken things can be beautiful and treasured, and to some extent we are all broken in some way, but this does diminish our beauty and our worth.

I recently shared a podcast about lessons learned on the beach and this story is part of that podcast.

Categories: 2019, Tampa Florida Vacation 2019

Tagged as: beach, beauty, deep thoughts, devotional, shells