Anyone else need a little perspective about now? Perhaps take a step back, inhale a deep breath, use a wide-angle lens? We don’t need reminding this year has been tumultuous but perhaps we do need reminding of our smallness. God’s bigness. That the seasons are still changing and life is still happening around us. And for me personally, there’s nothing like a humpback whale to get my attention…

 

 

Seriously, an actual humpback whale, so close I could have touched it.

“When my skin sags and my bones get brittle, God is rock-firm and faithful.” Psalm 73:26

Feeling a little saggy and brittle, my husband and I decided to go away to Vancouver Island for a couple of weeks for a change of scenery and a half-work half-play experiment, where I anticipated we would gain perspective on our everyday life/ worries/ busyness. But God truly got my attention one afternoon while whale watching.

First, let me explain that I have an irrational fear of drowning. Mainly, my nightmare has me taking my final breaths in a water-filled car but it also applies in the middle of the ocean on a small inflatable Zodiak boat. For some reason (I love my man?) I agreed to spend 4 ½ hours as an orange blip on the completely smoke-filled sea after being wind-whipped at 30 knots in the very front of a 12-person glorified dinghy.

And, friend, it was MAGNIFICENT.

We gazed around 360 degrees and saw absolute nothingness. Sky met ocean seamlessly and went on forever in a misty shade of grey. It was almost apocalyptic. It took my breath away.

“Who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand and used his hand-width to mark off the heavens?

    Who knows the exact weight of all the dust of the earth and has weighed all the mountains and hills on his scale?” Isaiah 40:12

My fear and uncertainty were replaced with awe and wonder. From the perspective of a teeny, tiny person in a teeny, tiny boat on a vast, immeasurable span of creation, everything changed. I was all at once vulnerable and valued. The Creator took that moment in time to remind me He is in control.

Of everything.

 

 

And as if that were not enough, He brought along 2 pods of killer whales who frolicked alongside us for over an hour, and then the ultimate introduction: a humpback whale named Nike who not only soaked us with his blowhole games, he hung out and posed for a photoshoot, barnacles and all. My heart was in my mouth. What a gift!

Interesting how my perspective shifted from the wide-angle lens as I surveyed the magnitude of the ocean to the close-up of a majestic humpback whale, so near I could have smelled its breath if I hadn’t been holding my own.

It was a nudge in my soul that God not only sees the ultimate big picture of our entire lives, He is also intimately involved in the details of our every day.

He loves us that much.

 

 

“… Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace….”

 …The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

 

So today, in the midst of an ocean of unknowns and unrest, let’s fix our eyes on what is unseen.

Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus…

with an eternal perspective.

 

 

P.S. I’d love to hop into your inbox once a month with “Laura’s Letters”—my newsletter complete with a giveaway, book reviews, recipe, and a little soul encouragement.

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Linking up with some fabulous encouragers! Check them out: