One afternoon when Jack and I were on a beach in Florida, we noticed some tracks in the sand that we thought were motorcycle tracks, and we began to follow them until Jack said, “Look up.” When I did, we both stopped and stared at a large leather-back sea turtle making the tracks toward the brush at the far edge of the beach. As we stood there the turtle reached her destination, and began to dig a hole in the sand. When it was finished we watched as she lay first one then several smooth white eggs there. We watched until almost dark when the turtle lumbered slowly back toward the water. As soon as her foot touched the wet sand she became swift and graceful as she disappeared into the waves. We were stunned with what we had witnessed, and the memory doesn’t fade.

“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears

her fawn? Do you know the time they give birth?. . . Who let the wild donkey go free: Who untied its ropes? I (God) gave it the wasteland as its home, the salt flats as its habitat. It laughs at the commotion in the town. It does not hear a driver’s shout. It ranges the hills for its pasture and searches for any green thing.” (Job 39:1-8)

When God finally answers Job’s persistent request that God explain to him the reason for his suffering, God’s answer is to display for Job, God’s infinite creative capacity in the many forms of life on earth. The inventory and the display humbles Job and opens wide a deeper, higher,wider relationship between God and Job: “You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. . . My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’” (Job 42:3-6)

Job had faith beyond that of his friends, or even of his wife: Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) However, Job lacked the humility to become closer to God. Hearing the voice of God detail His own creation worked to move Job to repentance.

Watching the turtle perform a ritual that has existed for millennia was humbling for me. Viewing a creature entirely outside my life experiences reminded me of creation and of how small but real a part of it I am, the the turtle and I both belong to the same God. Can a turtle really remind us of God? In the Bible all of life qualifies as a signature of our creator.

Love in Him,

Prue