I just got back from a seven day Caribbean cruise with my husband. The most fascinating part of being away for me is the search for what I get to bring back.
I usually always try to focus in on finding the ‘one thing’ that will make me smile over and over again after I am long away from the blue waters of the Caribbean. Though many people do not collect ‘things’ I have always been a collector of amusing and eccentric toggles that make me smile. I love to smile at the joy of someone’s creation. One mans creation is a thousand smiles, later.
This time, my heart leaped when I saw my first stuffed big eyed sea turtle. I of course thought of my six year old niece and my mother who I get my ridiculous joy of ‘things’ from. This little guy took my mind back to the experience I had when watching real live sea turtles hatch and run for the waters of the shore while vacationing in Cancun Mexico almost nine years ago. I never forgot the cherished courage those babies had to run as fast as they could to the waters edge, only to be engulfed by the very nature of their existence. It was incredible and it was the most fascinating experience I can vividly remember with nature. God is so amazing. They knew exactly where to go.
Side note: God created us with a purpose. I was thinking while driving down the street today how our world is such a rat race. We think our business and our efforts are the most important thing in the world, and yes those things are valuable, but God purposed for us to do great and wonderful things for Him as well as doing great and wonderful things for ourselves. While I was on this cruise I thought a couple of times how meaningless it was to pamper myself with such wonderful retreats of life when so many are suffering in other places. In fact, I was certain that there was someone suffering right on the ship I was on. I found that I was right. On the last day of the cruise I decided to (indulge further) get a massage because of the pain I was experiencing in my left shoulder which was not getting better but worse, since the trip began.
I was assigned to a massage therapist who was from somewhere in Europe. (I picked up on her accent) She was about mid 40’s and very sweet and accommodating. I asked her how long she had been doing massages and she said 23 years. I said; ‘That is how long I did hair when I was in the profession.” She said, “Our service is not as respected by other job descriptions, do you think?” I said; “Serving is the highest honor one could ever do, but few see it as noble.” She just looked at me with a puzzled look. She was suffering. She wanted out and expressed that one day she too would be free from ‘service’.
We do not ask to come into this world. We were created to come into this world. Was it to do the mundane, maybe? Or, look at it this way; we were created to come into this world so that we can fill the rush of the excitement that God has placed us into and then figure out the patterns of this life. It’s a fact that we will suffer the effects of the very experiences of life and hope like the sea turtles we make it to the tide before a seagull takes us for lunch or a seal or big fish eats us for dinner. Regardless, we were created for a purpose. Our purpose is to set our sights on the greater picture and grow bigger with the changing of the tides and the times. Have you ever seen a hundred year old sea turtle? I have. Who in there right mind would ever attempt to eat such a beast? How did he get so big? He dodged the big guys, relied on his intuitions and learned to lean on those that had greater knowledge and strength. He rules the ocean floor.
Our God is fascinated with us. He created us. He knows that if we do what it is we are created to do, which is to acknowledge Him as our Lord and lean on him in every and any situation, then we will swim the oceans of life until He decides we are finished. Truly, we were created to go with the ‘flow’…….but we usually fight the tide.
I went on a Caribbean cruise, and on it I saw the massive waters that house a zillion living things. The earth is big; the lands are covered with God creations. I cannot meet all the people or the living creatures but I know for sure that the sea turtles are something that have spoken to me in my lifetime and I believe that God is smiling at HIS toggle which he found sheer delight in creating.
Though I came home with six stuffed turtles to share with my loved ones, my delight is mostly in the joy of their faces when they gaze upon the big eyes of such a cute little creature. Creation makes me smile.
My six year old niece’s face was precious, when I pulled the baby sea turtle out of the bag. Then I told her the story of the turtles. Our hearts leaped.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:20 says and “God said let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures.”
He collects toggles. He has an ocean full of them. God and I,……..we smile!
