The Grandness of the world is a reminder of the grandness found in us all

​When I shared this image a few days ago, a friend reached out and said she didn't know why, but the image stirred something in her that made her tear up.

It did me as well. And her message led me to reflecting deeper on the reason for my own stirring.

I ultimately think it's because when I originally took the photo, I saw it as a metaphor for loneliness. The loneliness I have often felt. The loneliness I have heard many others describe to me.

A loneliness that is sometimes quite simply found in being alone. Like a shell on an endless beach; no other shells around.

But other times, and maybe most often the place where loneliness shows up, is feeling so small in the grandness of this big world that I could not possibly be noticed.

I could not possibly be known or of worth.

Yet. for the shell, and for you and me, the sunrise shows up every morning. The waves rush to the shore to greet us. The sands, in their countless grains, invite us to join them.

Why?

That's the question that trips us up. Maybe deceives us.

Because many times, we will choose to answer that question negatively. We let the answer be a reminder that we are relatively nothing in the grand scheme of things.

But what if the answer is that the grand scheme of things is nothing without us? What if the beautiful sunrise scene becomes not much of a scene at all without the shell?

What if the sunrise and the waves and the sands lose all of their meaning if it's not for me and for you being there to experience them?

What if the sunrise and the waves and the sands know of those days when we feel alone, and small, and they show up to remind us that together there is nothing small about us at all?

In the end, I don't picture this image as a metaphor for loneliness at all.

I see it as a metaphor for comfort. The comfort found when we allow the grandness of this world to serve as a reminder of the grandness created in each and every one of us.

Even the shell.