Resting in God's Glory

I returned yesterday eve from my daughter's wedding in Florida. It was a lot of fun and my dear Asherel was absolutely gorgeous. She and her new husband sailed off into the sunset on a cruise while the rest of us headed to the beach to wave bon voyage to the cruise ship.

Hubby flew home the day after the wedding, along with my son and his sweet wife. My precious sisters stayed with me for a few days of fun afterwards, and then they left as well. Before they left, we had a glorious time.

I was really sad to see them leave. However, I had my folding bike with me, and my kayak.

I had two days alone on the beach. Of course, I was not really alone. God was there.

And so were the manatees and dolphins! I instantly inflated my inflatable kayak, and took to the intercoastal waterway, to an inlet called the Banana River. Within minutes I was in the midst of an aggregate of manatee, floating on the water surface. I crept forward with trepidation. They are HUGE creatures though gentle...so I'm told.

The photo above is of a manatee who was very curious about my kayak, and surfaced within inches of me. I could have touched him. I didn't because I had learned "the lesson of the pelican." I will take a brief divergence to teach you "the lesson of the pelican."

My sisters and I spent the previous day walking 8 miles on the beach. We stopped for lunch and then went on the famous Cocoa Beach dock. The picture above is of a pelican just sitting happily on the dock. He let us come right up to him. I could not resist.  I slowly reached out, and he didn't seem at all perturbed.

Until.

This photo above catches the moment after I touched him. I almost lost my finger. He swung around and snapped his bill at me with so much ferocity that it sounded like a clap of thunder right overhead.

I scrambled and hid behind my sister. And learned my lesson. Don't touch wild animals. That is the "lesson of the pelican" and you would be wise to heed it.

 So I didn't touch the manatee while I kayaked in the midst of a whole aggregate of them. Here is a video of one swimming right up to me.

I had some the happiest few days of my life. The beach is probably my favorite place on earth, and biking and kayaking are my two favorite activities. I have the world's best sisters, and they are as fun as anyone I have ever known. I love nature, and God not only sent me pelicans, blue herons, and manatee...but I even played for an hour with dolphins in a cove I found after cavorting with the manatee.

I didn't want to go home. There are many struggles awaiting me there, and the beach had been a little slice of heaven. A passage in the Bible describes Peter ascending to a mountaintop with Jesus, where Jesus is transfigured, and meets with Moses, and Elijah. Peter is overcome with the magnificence of this mountaintop experience, and asks if he could build tents so they could all stay there. Jesus instantly nixes that idea. We are allowed mountaintop experiences, but it is not where we are to remain. We have jobs to do for His kingdom, and it is not to rest at His feet. We are to go out and BE His hands and feet. The mountaintop is to refresh and revive...not to reside.

Right before packing to leave, I did a bible study. The message was based on this verse:

"I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction."
Isaiah 48:10

In the book of Daniel, we are told the story of the fiery furnace where Daniel and his friends are thrown when they refuse to bow to the king's orders to disobey their God. They miraculously are unhurt, and emerge with not a single blister. Most astonishingly, someone is beside them in the fiery furnace.

Daniel 3: 23-25 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

What a comforting and remarkable passage! We will endure struggles, but remember, He is in the furnace with us.