I had a dream with Jesus the other day. He and I were just walking along the beach of the sands of time in my mind and it was beautiful. We were holding hands and just listening to the waves as we walked in the perfect salty ocean breeze. It was day time but all of the sudden these little baby sea turtles began to pop up out of the sand dunes and make their way to the water. My first instinct was to look around and make sure the moon was the only light. But it was day time. Light was all around. I looked at Jesus with wide eyes. “How are they going to know where the water is? Don’t they know they are supposed to hatch at night?”
He laughed and said, “They will find their way all right.” We turned our attention back to the babies doing their little army crawl to the gentle waves. My eyes locked on a gimpy turtle. He didn’t have even arms and so his path was diagonal instead of straight like all of the other shell drag patterns. I felt His shoulder nudge mine. “You feel like that’s you, don’t you?” I just smiled and redirected my watery eyes back to the gimp. “You see the path, I see the strength. You see that turtle will cover more ground than the others and be that much stronger when he hits the water. The muscles are being built up to a greater level.”
“But everyone else is going to get there first. He’ll be all alone on land.”
“Are you watching, My Dove? Really watch the others.” His hand showed me the truth as it swept out. All the turtles were going different paces, some paths were more crooked. There were no straight paths. Some turtles were almost to the water, others were back among the broken pieces of egg. My gimpy turtle was moving faster than some, but he wasn’t the fastest. He did find a tide pool that the others were not aware of yet.
My fear got the best of me. Tide pools are where crabs live and poor baby turtles have so many predators (some that attack before they even hatch). I moved to scoop my turtle-me out. Jesus’s hand pulled back on mine. “What are you scared of, Dove?”
“Crabs! or gulls, anything could get him.” My hair whipped in frustration. Jesus is supposed to know everything! How could he forget there are dangers? Predators just waiting for the moment one strayed too far away.
“Dearest, do you see any?”
“No, but they hide. Under the sand, behind the clouds, in the dunes.”
“Do you trust Me?”
“Of course.”
“Do you?”
“Sometimes.”
“Can you trust Me now?” His fiery eyes compelled me. Everything in me wanted to take flight. It’s terrifying. Trust Him? What if my turtle got hurt? What if he died? What if I could have stopped it?
*One deep breath* I close my eyes and remember. When I open them again I have the courage to say one word.
“Yes.”
He smiles. I love it when His face lights up. Like nothing and no one can make Him happier than I do. He spins me around but leaves His arms around me. We watch my little turtle play in the tide pool. This is what he was made for. To soar through the water weightlessly.
“This is your tide pool season. I’ve got you and this is a taste of what you were created to do. You’ll learn, get stronger, and play. Have fun My daughter. I’ll protect you. Then we will go into the deep.”
