Little Hints of Heaven
Never saw a whale in the wild until last summer. What an experience!
We signed up for a whale watching excursion with a marine biologist who’d been studying and tracking whales for over 30 years. This gal Carrie knew her stuff, and she was passionate about her whales! Her enthusiasm for her work and her love for these giant animals were contagious.
Fourteen excited passengers strapped into life vests and rain jackets and climbed onto the boat. So did her dog Koda – also very passionate about and amazingly gifted at spotting whales!
As the boat motored through the narrow passageway into the bay, our guide began to tell us what to look for and where. Fortunately, several whales were harboring in the area for the season. Carrie was familiar with their markings and had given many of them names. She felt confident we’d have multiple sitings on this outing.
Once we were a fair distance from the shore, Carrie idled the engine, and the boat rocked with the waves. Suddenly, Koda began barking relentlessly! Carrie shouted, “To the right! Look to the right!” Most of us onboard quickly grabbed our phones to snap photos, but by the time we were ready, the whale had slipped back under the water.
Phones in pockets and laps, we waited. “Another one! To your left!” Koda’s bark rang out! Again – quick grabs for our phones. Again – we missed our whale.
At that point, I decided I was done with the photo opps. I wanted to actually see the whales with my own eyes instead of through a lens. This was probably the only opportunity in my life I would ever have to see a whale in its natural habitat, and I was not going to miss it!
Phone in pocket, I subsequently enjoyed several more spottings before we headed back to the dock. Magnificent creatures, trusting and just curious enough to draw near to our odd vessel – I’ll never forget that experience.
God sprinkles His works of awe and wonder into every corner of our lives and into every corner of His universe. Whether it’s a whale gracefully sauntering through the ocean or the tuft of a dandelion blossom floating in the breeze, His glory is there. It’s there in the beauty of a wildflower fighting its way through concrete on a busy highway, and it’s there in the nest of bald hatchlings begging for worms from mama’s beak. His glory is in the unique fingerprints of billions of people, and it’s there in the mystery of the cocoon ripened to release a butterfly.
Why would a God so big show up in details so small, so seemingly insignificant, so unseen? Would you believe He’s showing up for you?
In the most minute and most magnificent of His creations, He’s calling us to delight! He’s stirring in us an odd homesickness for a Place we’ve yet to see. He’s wooing us with wonder because He loves us.
We weren’t created for this fallen, broken, hardened world. We were created for Eden life. Those precious flecks of His glory are sprinkled throughout our universe to remind us of a Home we’ve yet to know and of a Father Who’s waiting with arms wide open.
The tragedy is that we get so wrapped up in the flashy and fleeting, the shiny and shallow, the pretty and pretentious that we miss the beautiful, the real, the holy.
The distractions of this world are loud, thick, and stifling. But God would plead with us: “Don’t miss this, My child! I’m here!”
His glory hints are drawing us toward a Day when Eden is restored in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Like breadcrumbs along a trail, those hints are leading us Home – where we’ll drown in the divine and our lungs will fill with the breath of Heaven.
What a grace – an undeserved gift – to see slivers of eternity breaking through in our world every single day! Lord, don’t let us miss them! Thank You for the hints. Heaven is nearer than we can imagine and more beautiful than we can dream!
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“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling place of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself with be with them and be their God.’” – Revelation 21:3
“…What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” – Romans 1:19-20
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” – Job 12:7-10
“For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” – Psalm 95:3-5
“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He Who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” – Isaiah 40:26
