(Photo copyright by randyhofman.com. Used with permission.)
My two days at the beach was filled with jumping waves. Of course there was high tide and low tide, yet overall there would be some really big waves, and I loved jumping waves! I often rented a canvass raft, which was popular in those days, and I would ride the raft on the waves. Being at the beach all day was enjoyable for me. And I recall how my family often stayed at the beach until the late afternoon, after most other people had left to get ready for dinner. For food, I remember eating many grilled cheese sandwiches.
Then after showering, my family would walk the boardwalk, after the sun had gone down. After a great day, it was like getting a whole other day of adventure as my family spent the entire evening together. We would walk down the boardwalk, going into a few stores along the way. There would be numerous people out and about. And our destination was always the amusement park and the end of the boardwalk. We would go on rides galore. We would even play a few of the amusement games, the only time my family did such. When young, I won a game where I threw a dart and popped a balloon. The gift I got was not that great, but I was proud of my skill. I must have always been so tired once it was late at night that I do not even remember walking many blocks up the boardwalk to go back to our room.
There was so much activity and entertainment on the boardwalk, yet there was one tradition I value now more than any other. At the time, it was simply one special element of the cherished annual beach adventure. Every year, as we started getting close to the amusement park on our boardwalk journey, we would see the sand sculpture. There in the same spot in the sand close to the boardwalk, was a sand sculpture of Jesus. The artist would spend all day molding the sand, dampened with a hose extending from one of the boardwalk stores. The scene was often the Last Supper or Jesus on the cross. There were a few simple lights shining on his work. Key was the reverence on that one spot on the boardwalk, a boardwalk normally filled with noise. That small slice of the boardwalk was quiet. People who did not stop to look at the sculpture often quieted down as they walked by, and many people would stop and look at the sculpture. Compliments were often given, often in a low voice. Most quitely admired. I looked with awe at the sculpture of Jesus in the sand.
As a person who did not know the Gospel, who was not raised in a Christian family, and who did not go to church, except on rare Christmas or Easter occasions, the sculptures of Jesus were a witness to me. I did not learn much about Jesus. Yet I did realize there was a man who was so devout to Jesus that he would spend every day in the summer sculpting a magnificent picture of Him in the sand. His only earned income for his day’s work was the change or bill put by an occasional admirer in a small container on the edge of the boardwalk. That artist used his gift to witness Jesus.
I learned a few things about the sculptors on the Internet. Mark Altamare started sand sculpting Biblical scenes in Ocean City in 1968! It was his blessed works I saw in my youth. Upon retiring from his ministry in 1981, an artist who was friends with Mark, Randy Hofman, who is an oil painter, accepted and devoted himself to the ministry that summer. Randy has been devoted to that ministry from 1981 to this very day! Thanks to such unselfish work commitment by both, this ministry has flourished for 46 years. As someone who has not even seen the sculptures since the late 1980’s, in writing this, I have been filled with thankfulness for the ministry dedication of Mark Altamare and Randy Hofman for all 46 of those years.
I in no manner have a gift of painting, sculpting, or such art. My art gift is writing. In the previous eight blogs, I posted the book which I worked on from 2000 to 2005. I did not write every day, yet I spent countless hours writing, re-writing, and editing during those six years. It was a once in a life in this world writing endeavor. While I was writing that book in my thirties, many friends my age were already married, having children, and solidifying careers. Yet many mornings, I sat at my computer, purchased in 1994, writing away, all with the hope of sharing the love of Jesus with people with parents who are divorced, or even people who have been through divorces themselves. Yet I had little human encouragement, and some people in my church even seemed a bit offended by the title, though they had not read the book. And though a few Christian publishers considered it, all three turned it down for publishing.
Yet all these years later, over fourteen years since I started the book, there are people reading it right now here on this blog. Work I did years ago is witnessing the love of Jesus even today, and I am thankful to God.
You have a gift which can be used to witness the love of Christ! Maybe you have an athletic gift and passion, or maybe you have a gift for customer service. Please know God gives people different gifts and you get to choose your passions. God will use those gifts and passions for His glorious purposes if you are willing to submit them to God. If you use your gifts to witness Jesus, there will be eternal blessings. A skinny little blonde boy on the boardwalk of Ocean City, Maryland, in the 1970’s and 1980’s, did not know Jesus loved him so much that He died in his place for the penalty of his wrongdoings. That skinny little blonde boy did not know he needed to believe in Jesus to have eternal life. Now I do.
Hunter Irvine
