For the last few weeks I’ve been wondering, “Who can do better than a horseshoe crab?” I mean, just look at the design (pictures below)! Ever since I picked this fella up last month on Longboat Key beach (he was already long dead, by the way), I’ve been marveling at him. Oh, the artistry, the workmanship, the creativity!
And it’s not like this is the first horseshoe crab I’ve ever seen. As a kid, I’d see hundreds of them at Cape Henlopen in Delaware where my dad and I would go surf fishing. Back then I didn’t see them as anything more than a nuisance. But now, with eyes redeemed by His grace, I can’t stop marveling at the incredible beauty of this creature. I find myself stammering, “God, this is just a crab for Pete’s sake! Just look at it! It’s amazing! Seriously! It’s a work of art! You are amazing.”
Maybe you think my cheese has slid off my cracker. After all, who in their right mind takes pictures of a horseshoe crab and writes about it in a blog? I’ll tell you who: A kid like me who’s still got some wonder left in him. An artist who knows his place in the grand scheme of things. A Christian man who can’t help but stagger around at the overwhelming creativity and goodness of a God who would imbue such beauty in a crab.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if the artistic community at large sat still for a minute and marveled at the horseshoe crab and contemplated its Creator. Maybe we’d come in from our aimless wandering in the desert of artistic self-justification and find our home in arms of a Master Creator who calls says, “I created you and I find you wonderful.” Maybe our craving to be recognized or praised for our finger paintings – along with the tension and fear and insecurity that accompanies these feelings – would evaporate.
It certainly does with me. And this inner joy is yet another marvelously-created wonder of God. No, it’s not a physical wonder like the crab, it’s an interior wonder. And it’s equally magnificent. Thank you, Lord.
