Kingdom Harbor

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1

From my forthcoming book Jesus Walks: A Field Guide for Spiritual Conversations in Nature.

For Katie

This morning I came upon a friendly painted turtle on the road and pulled over to help him to safety. Yesterday I joined several other cars pulled over to watch another more daring Good Samaritan helping a large and intimidating snapping turtle across the highway to his wetland destination. My late cousin Scotty was a life-long turtle rescuer, known for the dozens of shelled creatures in distress he had saved from certain peril.

What is it about turtles that evoke such concern and compassion? 

Turtles have lessons to teach us if we slow down to a turtle’s pace and ponder them. “Slow and steady wins the race,” we learn from Aesop’s Fable The Turtle and the Hare. “Take a walk with a turtle, and behold the world in pause,” remarks Bruce Feiler. “Try to be like the turtle – at ease in your own shell,” urges Bill Copeland. James Bryan Conant says, “Behold the turtle; he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” Turtles are often observed for their relative helplessness, as in the popular remark: “Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.”

I think we have a soft underbelly for turtles because we see something of a our own fragile selves in these vulnerable creatures. Like them, we’re trying to keep up in a fast-paced world, but often withdrawing into a shell of self-protection. We too are slowly plodding our way through life, instinctually drawn toward the water of life over yonder but in danger of being crushed along the way. Turtles are a paradox like us—equal measures vulnerable and needy, yet one of few creatures who carry their home and a place of refuge with them wherever they go. 

Does this mobile shelter give turtles something the Son of God lacked? Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matt 8:20). Was Jesus’ without a home, without a safe shell-ter to retreat to when the storms of life hit? I don’t think so. 

Thomas Moore says, “Like turtles, we carry our homes with us as we move from place to place, all homes mobile, because home is ultimately located in a deep recess of the soul.” Jesus walked dangerous roads and faced threatening storms with a different kind of mobile shelter always with him: the Father’s loving protection. His mobile spiritual home more than made up for his lack of physical shelter. 

Remember the scene of the disciples at sea in the storm? They looked scared and naked, like turtles without a shell. Meanwhile, Jesus rests soundly and securely inside the shell of the God’s “peace that surpasses understanding” (Phil 4:7). He was covered by the truth of Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

What would we all give to have this kind of warm and cozy shell to tuck our heads into and out of as we go through our days? Well, we do!

Before Jesus ascended to the Father and left his disciples to their mission, he promised to send them something greater and more durable than a painted shell. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate [or comforter, protector] to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17).

He goes on to say that He and the Father (through the Spirit) will “come to [us] and make [their] home with [us]” (v. 24). At the risk of bending the image too far, God comes to provide us a Trinitarian shell or covering under which we can live, move and have our being. 

John’s Gospel opens with the stunning revelation that in the person of Jesus, God has moved into the neighborhood and pitched his tent (or “tabernacled”) among us (John 1:14). Or, as we might say, God has given his vulnerable creatures a shell wherein we can find shelter and loving communion with Him as we slowly make our way across the busy highways of life.

The psalmist declares, “Under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4). He just as well could have said, “Under God’s brightly painted shell you will find shelter.”

REFLECT & DISCUSS:

1. What are your feelings toward turtles? What traits endear you to them? How are humans like turtles? 

2. What spiritual metaphors or lessons come to mind as you think about and observe turtles? 

3. What do you make of Jesus’ statement about “not having a place to lay his head” (Matt 8:20)? Does your soul have safe shelter these days? Where do you seek shelter?