What’s so important about a coastline? For starters, it marks a boundary that hems us in. It’s impossible to build our homes on the surface of the sea. It keeps cities from expanding and can funnel fierce winds our direction in times of storm. A coastline limits us in so many ways.
A coast does something else for us, however. It gives us unending vistas as far as the eye can see. When we stand on a coastline, our imaginations are limited only by how big we can dream.
A coastline is also naturally defensible. With the right fortifications, we can repel all invaders.
A hundred years ago, one of the smallest counties in the world commanded power over one of the largest empires ever established on the face of the earth. From the tiny British Isles, explorers conquered a vast domain. Today, their legacy endures in the language they left behind. English is the international standard in air travel, banking, and commerce, and seen as a desirable primary second language in counties as diverse as Norway and Japan.
How did this happen? The British Isles are all coastline, from shore to shore. The only land border they share is the division between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The vast coastline around the British Isles is what allowed them to leapfrog around the globe and achieve dominance over much of the world.
A prominent coastline is a promise of success if we choose to take advantage of its possibilities.
Genesis 15:18-21 gives us God’s coastline promise to Abraham:
“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.’ ”
From coast to coast, all the land was given to Abraham. Nothing in between was to be withheld.
John 3:16-17 gives us another coastline promise:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
This world is given unto us for spiritual redemption. All of it, from coast to coast. Just as English was spread across the world from the coast of the British Isles, so shall the message of Christ flow from the cross, until every nation knows of him.
Our boundaries are only starting points. They are also launching pads to spread the message of Christ to all the lands of the earth.
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Code: FGO.C.08.16.vp.esv