“Mommy, look at what I made for you!” Lily said as she played in the sand. We recently got to visit the beach with my parents on Hatteras, N.C. The ocean is an incredible thing and my favorite place to be. It teaches us so many things about our Creator. One thing is certain: the beach has innumerable grains of sand. I believe that is why God speaks of it so many different times in the Bible. The sand also reminds me of Palawan, where God is calling us to be missionaries.

Often when we think about sand in the Bible, we think of God’s promise to Abraham: “. . . ‘By Myself have I sworn,’ saith the Lord, ‘for because thou hast done this thing, and has not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice’” (Gen. 22:16-18).

When Moses was blessing the sons of Israel before he died, he also mentioned sand. He said “They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand” (Deut. 33:19).

Our prayer is that the Palawano people will indeed become children of Abraham and be blessed for eternity. We pray that God will touch their hearts to seek after the “Pearl of great price,” which is their treasure hid in the sand.

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