This little guy can grow up to be fierce.
I was looking out the window a couple of weeks ago, watching my son cut the grass in the backyard. I noticed that he stopped and was staring intently a the ground. I went outside to ask him what was going on. He told me that there was a tiny turtle in the grass. I asked him what kind it was. He told me it was brown. You gotta love teenage boys and their descriptions!
I told him to come to the deck and get some gloves. I assumed it was a harmless box turtle, but you never know. He came and got the gloves and brought me back the tiniest turtle I had ever seen. I mean seriously, it couldn’t have been hatched for too terribly long.
But, it also happened to be what we call in Georgia, a snapping turtle. It was amazing to look at it up close. It had tiny nails and a tiny mouth. It appeared to be defenseless. But, I knew very well what it could one day be capable of.
Those turtles can grow very large and they are formidable predators in any body of fresh water. They also tend to be quite aggressive. It was almost impossible to believe what the tiny creature before me could one day become.
I wasn’t sure how it got in my yard, but I instructed my son to carefully take it to the nearby creek, where I was sure it had somehow come from.
I thought about that turtle over the next few days. I thought about how tiny and vulnerable it looked. I thought about how we too, often find ourselves in a similar position.
There are times in our lives when we are called to do something new and different than has been our normal. We may be newly weds, or new parents, or empty nesters. We may be called to start a new career or a new ministry of some kind. We may be mourning a loss.
Whatever the change may be, we sometimes find ourselves feeling tiny and vulnerable in our new role. Like the turtle, we may find ourselves feeling defenseless. We may even want to draw into our shell and hide like turtles often do.
But, we have to remember that when we are walking with Jesus, we are never alone or defenseless. The Bible tells us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
And when we stay on the path with Jesus, like that turtle, we too, will grow to be a strong formidable force wherever we have been placed on whatever path we find ourselves.
A tiny snapping turtle reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂