La Tortuga De Mar (The Turtle)

About 2 years ago I developed a great love of the turtle. I am not 100% sure as to why or where this love came from. Perhaps because they are not at the top too many peoples list of favorite animals. They're the underdog. They're not terribly cuddly, kinda ugly looking and you can't really interact with them much. Although they are kinda ugly, I find them very beautiful creatures, as most of God's creation is. (I say most because there are some creatures that I just can not find beauty in...ie. bats, snakes, some spiders. I know some may beg to differ but I will disagree). Maybe it is for these reasons I love the turtle so.

Some look at the turtle and see the shell as symbolizing heaven and the square underside symbolizing the earth. The turtle represents how we as humans need to unite heaven and earth in our own lives.The turtle withdraws and goes within when it is in turmoil. It naturally knows to do this.The turtle's life is one of steadfastness in effort and patience, slow and steady. A life of "non doing". The turtle is also always at home within itself.

I think we have a lot to learn from the turtle. How often do we as humans try and solve our problems on our own. It seems that only after our efforts fail do we look to God (who is in us) for help. We rarely do this naturally. And what about patience? How patient are we with God's plan for our lives? We want to know the answer now and most of us are not satisfied when He answers our prayers with a wait. We would even sometimes rather have an answer we don't want than to have to wait. And that life of "non doing"? Haha. we are such a society of do do do and go go go. We have little time to sit and do nothing and just listen to what God has to say to us, to bring our desires to God or to just praise Him. And how many of us are at home with ourselves? We are always striving to have what others have, to meet societies demands, to be people we are not or people that God did not intend us to be. I mean it is good to strive to be the person God wants us to be but we often tend to strive to be other things as well. We are not happy with who God wants us to be...we want to be what society thinks we should be. The two are often not congruent.

Yes, we have a lot to learn.

So, the next time you see a turtle, be it living or otherwise, think about what it represents. Could you take some lessons from this creature? I know I could!!