Turtle at the Window!

     A few days ago, after the children's schooling was pretty much finished one afternoon, I had just sat down to read my Bible at last when some very excited yells and scuffles up the stairs alerted me that my nice, quiet devotional time was going to be interrupted.

"A turtle!" Hannah and Dannah screeched. "Mom! A turtle is trying to get in the window!"

Out the door the children ran with their curious mother right on their tails. Sure enough, a turtle of several inches size was down in the window well, clawing at the glass of a basement window! We couldn't help wondering where it had come from and how it got there! Had the recent snow coaxed it out of some dry hideout and then had it fallen in the window well as it went exploring?

The children promptly picked up the turtle and headed off to the pond where they plopped it into the water at the edge. Happily, the rescued turtle swam off. I looked up online to see what kind of turtle is black with yellow lines, and it appears to be a pond slider. True to its name, this one slid right into the pond!

There it was joined by two other creatures very happy to slurp and mud bathe!

I kept thinking about that little lost turtle trying to climb the glass window in the window well. What if our children hadn't been downstairs in that room? How long could that turtle have survived? I don't know. I was just glad we could rescue it and put it back where it felt at home.

So many people are like the little lost turtle. The storms of life have disoriented them and many have lost their way. While pious Christians sit at the table reading their Bibles like I was and drinking coffee, there are lost people struggling to find a way out of their sin and troubles. We don't always hear them tapping at our window, dropping little hints in their conversations to let us know they are struggling, like the precious people in Andrew and Morgan Street's newsletter I just read recently.

Lord, give us eyes and ears to hear the hearts of people who are lost. Help us to know how to help them find their way Home.