Big Wave, Little Wave

Tonight, I was reminded of a prayer (or question) I prayed (or asked) five years ago while on my honeymoon at Koh Samui, Thailand. We stayed on a lovely resort called Rocky's Resort. During that time (probably still true for me now), I told my new wife that this resort was probably the best that I've ever stayed in my whole lifetime of travelling (I'd been to many countries before). It's named Rocky's Resort because certain parts of the beach (Lamai Beach) at the front of the resort had rocky formations. I had many fond memories of this wonderful trip at this beautiful island (and the smaller islands up north especially Koh Tao was a real gem), but tonight I'm suddenly reminded of a prayer and its unique answer.

One of the rooms we stayed (yeah we switched rooms to experience the difference types of views because I couldn't make up my mind at the time of booking) in was the Beachfront suite. Right outside our suite was the rocky beach itself. One early morning, I woke up and sat on a big rock and prayed/asked something of God's ways. After a while, I was bored and was just observing the unusual waves raging and crashing each other randomly, different sizes and intensities at all angles. I was playing a "guessing" game in my head to see which wave would make it to the shore from a certain distance. The waves' propagation were unusual and irregular (sounds like a Physics class, huh?!) due to the spread of the rocks.

Some waves were intense and fast and I thought they would make it to the shore but somehow lost steam halfway. Some waves were huge and strong, I thought they would obviously go all the way but to my disappointment, were easily cancelled out by other waves due to their irregular rhythms and angles. As my eyes continued to follow many of them, most never reach the shore and I thought those that reached were products of some random combination of chance. Then somehow my eyes caught a small wave. My first judgement was: it was too small and weak, it would lose its steam, get swallowed up or cancelled by bigger waves. "Surely it can't", I thought. But to my amazement, it soon met another small wave at the same angle and became one. Before it lost its momentum again it met another small wave, consolidated and gathered speed and amplitude once more. This happened several times before it finally crashed the shore. I thought the answer (came with bonus explanation) to my prayer then was as obvious and clear as my former Physics teacher's lesson!

What a creative God I pray to! His ways are mysterious and often hidden. Be careful of how we easily judge things (or people!) we thought are strong or weak. What's obvious may not often be. Don't be surprised if the strong horse that you've placed your bet didn't last the race, and the one that you thought wouldn't, wins it!

Now that I'm thinking of the beaches I've been to, I really miss my beach holidays!

 Lamai Beach

Calm waves at Rocky's

Beachfront suites in the background