By Amber O’Brien
I should have used my big girl voice
I should have said, “Will you please fill the hole?” as the family
Packed up their plastic toys and shovels.
For I knew what they did not; for
A hole left open can lead to heartache.
Years before a woman on a nearby shore stumbled in the dark
And she fell into a neglected hole;
She couldn’t climb out and she soon fell asleep.
Early the next morning a sand -cleaning machine
Pushed the sand over her and
She. Was. Buried. Alive.
The reporter urged the viewers “to please fill in the holes”
After scooping sand and sculpting sandcastles.
But, there are some gaps we cannot fill up
On. Our. Own.
I thought of my own regrets:
As a mother. As a friend.
A sister, daughter, wife
Would my regrets ever end?
So many pits, so many pangs of regret
How many people have fallen into the holes that I’ve continually dug
With clenched fists of selfish pride and fear?
Or on the other hand,
How many people have hurt me and bore huge holes in my own heart?
But I worsened my wounds with unforgiveness and
Allowed the gaping holes to fester from self-pity.
This huge hole left in the sand in front of me
represented all my failures and
I sat anxiously in my beach chair pondering what to do.
I didn’t have a shovel,
Or the strength…………… for I now finally comprehended that
All these holes together form a Grand Canyon sized chasm that separates
me from holy heaven.
Who will fill the hole?
Downhearted and distressed,
I grievously sat gazing at the ginormous gulf
Paralyzed with despair.
Who Can fill the hole?
Then a lifeguard
Wearing a blood-red tank top
With a white cross sealed across his chest
Climbed down from his high white stand,
Kneeled in the sand and
With his open bare hands,
He gently and carefully pushed the sand from the rough edges
And Filled. In. The. Hole.
Above all, Love each other deeply, because Love covers a multitude of sins.
I Peter 4:8