Yesterday's communion meditation was given by Chad Chapman. We thought it was a good one, so I am sharing it this morning (in part):

Chad, his wife Raejean, and daughter Kenna had the opportunity to travel to Florida over the Christmas holiday. He told that they spent much of their time on the beach enjoying the sun and collecting shells. "It isn't hard to find shells, as they are laying everywhere," he said. "Most of them are about the size of a quarter. Many are chipped and broken." He said they tired of the collecting and started to play in the ocean, wading, or relaxing.

The second day, Kenna came wading toward them with larger and more elaborate shells. She told them she would shuffle her feet across the bottom on the ocean until she felt something sharp. "When she would feel a sharp object, she would stop and dig it up," he said. The family embarked on the shuffling and digging; collecting the nicer, bigger, more beautiful treasures.

Chad compared his thoughts to studying the Bible. "It is extremely helpful with life-guiding information," he said, "Sometimes we keep it at the surface level, like the edge of the sea shore. Sometimes we keep it just at the surface level. The safe stuff, like the edge of the sea shore, Sometimes we try to ignore the parts we know we either aren't going to like or we know we will struggle with. But it's those times when we dig deeper into the Living Waters, and not worry about the sharp, possibly painful items, that we truly grow in our faith, and are rewarded with nice, beautiful rewards." And he showed as one of their larger shell treasures!