Bird’s Eye View

Once upon a time, travel was my middle name.  I made it my mission to get on a cruise ship headed somewhere at least once each calendar year.  Sometimes, I would hit the open seas twice in a year.  It just depended on how the year was flowing.  Although cruising is not the only way that I travel, I do like it a lot.

I was sitting out on the balcony of our cabin with Bible Study Cousin.  We were being quiet.  Just two girls looking out at that vast ocean.  Nothing but water for miles and miles around.  I was looking at the clouds.  I was looking for dolphins.  I was looking at the waves.  And then something else caught my attention.

I could have sworn that I saw a bird.  I looked to see if there was an island nearby that this bird could have possibly come from.  At that point, it was just a glimpse of the bird out of the corner of my eye.  I stopped looking for clouds, dolphins, and waves.  My focus switched to finding this bird.  There it was again!  Soaring over the ocean waves.  Wings spread wide for quite a distance and then…it nosed dived into the ocean.

I’m sure that I gasped quietly to myself.  Ya’ll know I’m dramatic.  I didn’t want to disturb Bible Study Cousin and her book reading, but this was disturbing to me!  I counted silently to myself.  Would this bird be able to emerge from the water?  Did it have a death wish?  As I focused on the waves, I was able to see a different bird emerge from the depths of the sea.  He coasted for a long time and then went back under water.  I couldn’t hold my peace any longer!

“Did you see those birds flying out the water?”  “Yup!”  We then had to try to figure out what was going on.  I let her know that I had struggled with even saying anything, but the whole ordeal was weirding me out.  We wondered if flying fish were a thing.  And if flying fish WERE indeed a thing, why had it taken us so long to notice them?  (Side note:  You can purchase access to the internet while on a cruise ship, but my goal is to GET AWAY from my regular life.  I use those seven days to spend time with the people that I’m on vacation with.  So, Google was not an option to settle this debate.  Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.)  Like I stated previously, we are ALL about cruise life.  That wasn’t our first time sitting on a balcony looking at the ocean.  But it was our first time seeing these creatures.

When we got back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now, yeah, we Googled flying fish.  And our minds were expanded!  Or blown.  Flying fish are indeed real.  You can Google them yourself if you’d like to learn more about these fascinating creatures.  Why did I go into such depth to talk about these amazing animals?  My devotional challenged me to meditate on the greatness of God’s wonderful works, and these fish instantly came to mind.  God is so creative.  Not only is He creative, but His creations boggle the mind.  Forget flying fish.  He thought enough of me to create me.  He thought enough of you to create you.

Thinking of the complexities of the human body is enough to leave me frazzled, but He knit each cell in our bodies together.  He created us in His image and likeness.  What a wonderful work!  He could have made anything, and yet He took time to mold me out of the dirt.  The even better news is that He’s not finished with us yet.  Every day, He can mold us and make us into a more fascinating representative of Him.  But we have to be willing.  We have to withstand the process.  Because when He’s done with us, people will be looking at us just like I was looking at the fish on the balcony.  They will have never seen anything like us.  #wepreach