Lent Day 22 – Turtle

Isaiah 58:11
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah warned the people of Judah that their exile was coming. They were religious but not merciful, fasted but acted unjustly, gathered to worship God but dismissed to live life as they pleased (Isaiah 58).

But, Isaiah promised, if the people of Judah stopped sinning against God by mistreating people…

…God would guide them always and satisfy them in a dry land. They would live and grow like a well-watered garden, like fields fed by a spring that never ran out.

My granddaddy on my father’s side was a banker as a younger man and a farmer in retirement. We inspected the rows of cucumbers and tomatoes together in the Texas heat, shelled peas on his porch, and walked the acres of woods out back.

One Summer afternoon, on one of our treks together, we came to a pond. It was surrounded by a ring of mud several yards wide. And sitting in the mud, far from the water, was a large snapping turtle.

“He lives in there,” he explained, kneeling down by the turtle, motioning to the dried up pond.

The turtle wasn’t going to move, he explained. “He knows it’s gonna rain soon.”

Is that hope or stubbornness or instinct?

Maybe like us the turtle had all three. Because God promised…we have hope, we refuse to give up or give in, and we just know deep down in our bones that the rain is coming. We will be tended to, well-watered, and unstuck again.

Charles-Spurgeon-Quote-Snail

Our Prayer

God, we are stuck and dried up, thirsty and craving what only You can give. Satisfy and care for us today, God who never fails or forsakes.
Amen.