Whale Tale

I recently started school. I ought to be giving the best hours of my day to this new, exciting adventure. I will, just not today. You see, a new day has dawned. My kids are prayerfully safe in their classrooms, their books and their minds being opened. There is still laundry to be done, calories to ingest, and messes to be swept up, but God keeps calling me, reminding me, beckoning me, so I write. I write because it’s therapeutic to me, but I hope it is therapeutic for you too. I want you to breathe deep of hope and exhale gratitude, as God continues to breathe life into the very fabric of our lives.

I had a dream recently that I just cannot shake. I’ve spent the last year or two enduring nightmares so vivid, I could verily pick up a sword and fight the battle in the war being waged in my subconscious mind. The battle is intense and terrifying.

The enemy fights like that. As you become stronger in the light, he fiercely attacks your life in the dark.

However, the Bible tells us the Lord gives sweet sleep to those He loves (Psalm 127:2). Jesus loves me this I know (do I really know that? Do I believe that?).

To fully expound on this topic, I want to give you some history. My husband and I celebrated our ten-year wedding anniversary by taking an Alaskan cruise. The most wonderful part of that cruise was completely out of the hands of the charming Cruise Director. My husband and I were walking outside to get a glimpse of the ocean and we purposely chose a less frequented spot. We stood close to the front left-side of the cruise ship, just where the water breaks. As I looked down, I longed to see marine life. I shared my longings with my spouse. He met my hope with logic. He assured me that it was unlikely because of where we were positioned with the water breaking. Not long after, we saw varieties of jelly fish coasting by. Once my husband had uttered the sheer unlikelihood of seeing something grand, he himself saw something grand– a large sunfish! He began to get excited too. You see, God did not meet my logical man with reason, he met his logic with beauty, with wonder, with hope. At this point, we were the only two watching and waiting. I began to pray, fervently.

Lord, I know the God I serve. I know you can show us something much bigger and better than that large fish I missed. Let us see something breathtaking, awe inspiring, majestic. Just one whale would be astounding.

I prayed and prayed (silently, fiercely, reverently). Do you ever feel like a beggar when you pray? I do. I was the persistent widow knocking and I was not going to let up. After about 30 minutes of silence we began to see, not one, not two, but twenty to thirty humpback whales. I prayed for one whale and God gave me a pod of them. It was a sight to behold, unscripted creation showing its power, meeting us through hope-filled prayers!

It’s been a few months since that cruise but I recently had a dream. The dream put to scale what my Alaskan reality should have. On the cruise ship the whales were about fifty feet away. Their beauty was breathtaking but I do not think I truly grasped the sheer size of them. In my dream however, I sat in a fishing boat with God and I began to see extremely large whale tails sneaking up above the stern. It terrified me!

At one point the waters intensified. God took me far above the water to show me the bigger picture of what I was seeing just beyond the surface. He gave me a much different perspective, a higher point of view. Moving away from the ocean water I saw huge, chilling whale tails but once we were high above the water, I saw five extremely large whales dancing gently about in the water. We chuckled as we watched His majestic creation from up above.

Once we had taken it all in, I found myself back in the water. This time I was swimming. I would slowly put my face in the water searching for hidden treasures. There were plenty to behold. I went back to the boat to show Him all the treasures I had found. He reminded me that these are not paid for experiences but sought after experiences.

I woke up smiling and laughing! My God is a whale tale God, even in my dreams!

The dream and the reality remind me, when I am positioned where the water is breaking and it seems there is no hope of seeing a miracle, I need to stop and pray.

After that, I should stop and pray some more. He is out in the water orchestrating something grander than I could ever think or imagine. There are treasures below the surface of those rocky, breaking waves but I must get in the water and search for the incomprehensible wonders of God.


Jeremiah 33:3 (HSCB)
Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.