The sun slides toward the horizon on a July afternoon, striking tiny grains of pale shell, turning a black sand beach into a starry night. I don’t get all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico from my home in northeast Louisiana very often, so I linger in the fading light.

The beach is littered with shells. I know from experience that the original tenants of most of them have died and, in the exemplary efficiency of nature, they now shelter thin-striped hermit crabs (Clibanarius vittatus). As evening falls, the shells scoot across the sand, in search, I imagine, of a bedtime snack. But maybe that’s what I imagine because I love a bedtime snack.

Then… a slight movement draws my attention to two shells lying side by side with apertures facing each other in a small depression in the sand. Could it be….? Yes! Oh, my, yes. “The embrace” unfolds before my eyes.

Creation delights once again. Divine love wraps its arms around those who wait and see.