The Whale, the Wacky, And the Wonderful

Dear Friends,

Generally, I always write an article that promotes resilience and gives you tools to strengthen your bounce back-ability, but this month I couldn’t resist veering off a bit to share the whale, the wacky and the wonderful. It does have a protagonist that is actually quite resilient 🙂 

Last Sunday when we gathered at my oldest son’s for Father’s Day, I wrestled up the grandchildren and told them to go sit on the couch for Nana had a very special story to tell. 

I began, “Noah, Titus and Adaline,” making sure that I had their full eye-contact, and continued,” When you grow up, people everywhere are going to tell you the Bible isn’t true and the stories in it are just make believe. They will tell you Daniel didn’t really get thrown into a real lions den; and Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego didn’t really get thrown into a fiery furnace; and Jonah never got swallowed by a real whale. People will tell you the stories are fairy tales and you shouldn’t believe them. But, I am so excited to tell you about a modern day Jonah story that just happened only a few days ago; I just read it in the news. Are you ready?

“Yes,” they all said wide-eyed. Well, there is a man who is a lobster diver and he lives on the east coast of the United States. His job is to dive off his boat, deep down into the ocean, and catch fresh lobsters and put them in his cage. While he was down there looking for lobsters, he felt a huge shove and then everything went completely black. He realized he had just been swallowed by a huge fish. At first, he thought it was a great white shark. He panicked. He thought, “I’m done. I’m dead.” But he continued to fight and struggle as hard as he could and when it didn’t eat him he figured he might be inside of a humpback whale. He thought about his two boys and whether he would ever see them again. He could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth and throwing his head from side to side. The next thing he knew he had been spit back out into the sea.

JUST LIKE JONAH!!!!!!

Now he wasn’t in there three days and three nights like Jonah, maybe only a minute, but we know that a man was swallowed by a fish AND in the news article I read, a Doctor, a marine biologist, said, “this is the second time I’ve heard of it happening.” So, this has happened before. I also learned that humpback whale’s are known as gentle giants, they don’t usually eat human snacks. 

Kids, isn’t that amazing? Adaline, who is four-years-old, raised her hand to speak. “Nana, when I grow up, I will tell people the Bible is true. The stories are true, and they will listen to me.” Amen, sweet child. Amen.

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