It is only my second post and my "picture is worth a thousand words" is going out the window. I have a story to tell--so here come the thousand words, with a photo or two on the side.There is more to the Turtle Story, and it is a story of God's showing his love in the minute details of our lives.
It begins when Karl and I came down to St Simons to interview for the job back in March or so. We went into one of the tourist shops down in what is called The Village. In that shop was a 50 gallon aquarium full of tiny (about 2 inches) yellow bellied slider turtles. I fell in love with them, and knew that Anna would love them too. Since we still lived in Maryland, and the 3 oz. liquids limit mandated by the airlines was hardly enough water to get one of those cute turtles home, I planned to return when we moved here to buy one. I could hardly wait to get one; I knew Anna would love one and they were so adorable and cool.
So we moved at the end of June, and after settling in I took the kids and went to that shop to get a turtle. Upon walking in the store I was immediately saddened to see the sign on the aquarium full of turtles, it read: "no buy, only look." Oh, I was so disappointed. I went to the clerk and inquired about the sign. He said the state had made a law that stores are no longer allowed to sell the turtles because several young children had put them in their mouths and choked on them. Oh, okay, we were disappointed, but we understood.
So fast forward to tropical storm Fay. The morning after the storm had cleared us, Karl was moving some tree branches out of the street. He was walking through the field next to our house to put them in the forest when he saw Turtle on some really tall grass, all by himself. Anna came running in the house to tell me. I went out to see, and sure enough, he is the exact same type of turtle they were selling in that store...Now he lives in our house, where he all regularly admire God's handywork anytime of day. He is so cool.
Yes, I feel the love. It is one of those infinite "little things" God does all the time, but I have a green and yellow little reminder just when I need one!
(My favorite quote from Anna in this turtle adventure was: "We wouldn't be very smart if we didn't have the internet.")
Last Sunday, church was a real blessing to me. The pastor closed the service with the "cardboard testimony" presentation that has been done at Hillsong. It was so powerful. Here is a link to the video of it:
http://www.sscommunitychurch.com/cardboard-testimonies
Make sure your volume is up, the song is very good too.
