TURTLES END!

It’s SPRING! The turtles are on the move again, so I wanted to share this post.

“Eastern Box Turtle crossing the Parkway Motor Road – Give Him A Brake” by blueridgeparkwaynps is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. 

Ever seen a turtle cross the road like the above photo?  It’s quite a common sight in Oklahoma.  They even show up in our yard now and then.  I saw a beautiful moment once as someone rescued a turtle from the middle of the road where it probably would have met its inevitable end.  I wrote a poem about it I called ‘Turtles End’: 

He thought he could make it
The way was clear and smooth                
Anticipation gaining for what                      
Lay on the other side of the road

He saw it coming                                                       
The pick-up bearing down                                          
And ducked inside his shell                                        
Safe within his illusion                                                                
He waits

Someone screams stop!
The pick-up swerves
And out comes the turtle’s savior
In red
She stooped down, picked him up
And moved him to the other side

I wish I knew her
This woman in red
Filled with compassion and love
For underlings

There is another who wills
To lift you to another place
One day
Where the lion and the lamb
Lie together
And nothing shall hurt nor destroy.

Turtles have been around for 200 MILLION years!!!  They survived whatever befell the dinosaurs.  The smallest turtle is the Speckled Dwarf Tortoise native to South Africa which weighs a whopping 95 to 165 grams and the largest is the Leatherback which can weigh up to 2,200 pounds and can be 5.5 feet long!!!  Some are slow moving land dwellers, and some are graceful and live in the sea.  They all have a protective shell on their back which resembles a shield.  This shell is actually a part of their skeleton which includes their ribcage and spine.  This shell grows with them, is super-tough and protects them from predators.  Some turtle shells act like a garage door that opens and closes enough so that they can pull their head and feet inside the shell for additional protection!  Turtles can live a long time!  The oldest lived on Tonga Island and was said to be 188 years old when it died!

Their protective shell looks like a shield and reminds me of the shield of faith that is for our protection!  It is part of the armor of God described in Ephesians 6:11-16.  The turtle from ‘The Book of Nature’ is telling us something critically important!  The turtle wears a permanent shield for protection and so should we.  This shield (shell) grows with them.  Once they stop growing, so does their shell.  Your shield of faith should grow with you until you pass away!  The turtles’ shield has its limits.  It is no match for automobiles.  BUT your shield of faith is limitless in its ability to protect you and enable God to do great things through you.  Faith is a fruit of the Spirit and like fruit, it grows to maturity.  As Romans 1:17 says, we move ‘from faith to faith’.  ‘The ‘widely accepted understanding is that from faith to faith speaks of a progressive, growing development of faith “from one degree of faith to another” akin to the “ever-increasing glory” of 2 Corinthians 3:18.  ‘And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’  Gotquestions.org.  

Your faith began as a gift!  ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’.  Ephesians 2:8.   

Now that we are saved, we are called to live and walk by faith.  ‘Now the just shall live by faith.’  Hebrews 10:38.

‘For we walk by faith, not by sight.’  2 Corinthians 5:7.  

‘And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.’ Hebrews 12:1-2.

It is Jesus who is the pioneer of our faith, (He gave us the ‘gift of faith’ to be saved) and is the perfecter of our faith (the one who ‘has begun a good work in us and will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus,’) the day of His return.  Philippians 1:6.

He perfects our faith through various trials, and we are called to ‘count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.‘  James 1:2-4.

And remember, ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’  Romans 10:17 NKJV.  Study the word of God.  It is what we have faith in!!!  If you don’t know the word of God, then how can you ‘fight the good fight of faith’ as we are called to do in
1 Timothy 6:12. 

‘Take up the shield of faith’!

Jesus expects great things from us!  He said, ‘Most assuredly, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and GREATER WORKS than these he will do, because I go to My Father.’  John 14:12!!!

Let Jesus ‘perfect’ your faith and study the word of God and perhaps you will be one of those people who does these GREATER WORKS God is saying we will all do!!!