If any of you grew up on Looney Tunes like Alan and I did, you might remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon where he and Daffy Duck travel underground from Albuquerque to Pismo Beach “and all the clams you can eat.”
That became a family joke, so when we actually made it to Pismo Beach, California, I just had to have fried clams for dinner!
They don’t get any fresher, and they were delicious!
After dinner, we took a beautiful stroll down to and along the beach.
It was a golden afternoon, and the area is stunning.
There have been a few times in our lives that Alan and I have taken a week to drive up (or down) the coast of California, and each time I feel breathless with the wonder of God’s magnificent creation.
“What hath God wrought?!”
this time the ice plants were in their glory. I’ve relished them before so hadn’t targeted them for our bucket list, but what a joy to behold!
Of course, the unique attraction at Pismo Beach is watching all the seagulls hunting clams.
Why are there so many clams at Pismo Beach? Because it’s become illegal for people to dig for clams!
However, the seagulls are exempt from this ordinance, so they come from miles around to dig for sweet, juicy clams.
We watched with fascination as the seagulls searched for just the right clams.
Some of the clams were so big you’d think the birds couldn’t really get them in their beaks, but they could!
Carefully, each cagey hunter would take off with his clam securely wedged,
fly way up high in the sky
look for the perfect spot on the beach below,
and let his prize drop onto the sandy beach.
Immediately, he’s swoop down to retrieve his prize before any other seagull could scoop it up.
Can you see the broken clam shell in his beak?
From there, it was the happy task of shucking the shell and gulping down a tasty treat!
As I watched the majestic drama of fetching and feasting while the tides receded, so many ideas came to mind. For one, God provides for all his creatures: “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” (Luke 12:24)
God is a GOOD provider:
“These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.”
—(Psalm 104:26-28, NKJV).
Also, despite the fact that God provided the resources for fine clam dinners, the seagulls were working very hard singing (and screeching) for their suppers! “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).
I also pondered how it felt to be a clam. Were they terrified? Did they have thoughts about screaming gulls and dark shadow descending on them?
How did they feel about being hoisted skyward, crushed by their terrible fall, and devoured by their enemy? Did they feel helpless? Do we sometimes feel like clams? Are we okay with allowing God to fashion us for His uses, even if that means our death? Have we come to the point in our lives where we can ascribe to the Apostle Paul’s faith: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)? Do we keep our eyes on Jesus, knowing how much He loves us and that God—our heavenly Father—sees every hair as it falls from our heads? He notes each sorrow we bear . . . yet encourages us over and over in the scripture: “FEAR NOT!” He calls us to keep believing, knowing that though our earthly bodies perish, our spirits never do! Those who are trusting in Christ’s sacrificial death to redeem us from sin won’t lie broken and empty on a vast beach forever, buried in the sand. We WILL rise to be with Christ forever!
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one . . . I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:11,15).
“Satan may bite our heels but Jesus crushed his head.”
Isaiah 40:30-31 (NKJV)
“Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Summer Setting 