THE GLASS BEACH

In the early 1900s, Fort Bragg, California, residents threw their household garbage over a cliff to a deserted beach below. For decades people dumped all kinds of refuse there into the ocean, old cars, metal, furniture and mostly household garbage, which included innumerable glass containers.

In the 1940's the area became known as "The Dump," and fires were often lit to burn down the growing trash piles. Finally in 1967, the city leaders wisely closed the area to dumping. Various cleanup programs were undertaken to try to clean up the damage, but without much success.

Over the next thirty years the pounding waves cleansed the beach, breaking down and washing most everything away, everything except the glass and pottery. The ceaseless waves disintegrated the trash but broke up and smoothed the broken glass - tons of it - moving it back and forth along the shore. The broken glass shards remained along the sea shore by the millions, polished by the ceaseless waves until an amazing new beach was formed. The locals noticed this and renamed the area "Glass Beach."

Its sea glass is the product of a long and brutal process. Fragments are tumbled in the water, twenty-four hours a day, bumping and grinding against each other, breaking and fashioning surfaces into a frosty and glistening appearance. As the ocean tumbles the pieces against each other, sand and pebbles join to smooth the rough edges until the sea glass resembles precious gems.

In 1998, the owner of the property suggested that Glass Beach should belong to the public, so in 2002 it became part of MacKerricher State Park. Glass Beach quickly attracted large numbers of tourists. The tinkling sounds of the glass pebbles tumbling together by gentle waves makes a visit there memorable.

Visiting Glass Beach today is unique. Whereas decades ago people dumped their refuse on the shore, now they try to take home glass pieces as souvenirs. How ironic that where it was once illegal to dispose of trash, trash now turned into treasure, today it is illegal to remove even a piece of it.

Maybe at some time you have felt like trash, left behind, dumped overboard or abandoned as worthless. Hopefully the bumps and bruises of life have shaped you well and made you realize you are more valuable. Life may try to dump and grind us, but God considers us His treasures. He believes we so precious that He gave the life of His only Son that we might be with Him forever.

Because of Jesus, we are all God's precious gems!