What a hot day so far and I spent the morning greeting people in and saying goodbye on the way out, so it was understandable if I needed to cool down in the comforts of my apartment afterwards and flip on the TV. I have been getting free HBO and just my luck, the movie Dolphin Tale was on. I have never seen it before and caught the last hour of it, and from what I saw....I was inspired. I went on the website seewinter.com and learned a little bit about this amazing dolphin named Winter.
She was found caught in a crab trap. Due to the entanglement, the blood supply to her tail was cut off which eventually led to the loss of her tail. A prosthetic tail was made for her and she was able to go on and live life as normally as a dolphin possibly could. But what really caught my attention in her story was that Winter had learned to swim with a side to side motion instead of an up and down motion. Vets became worried because they felt this could damage her spine and paralysis seem enevitable if nothing was done to help her.
Why did that tidbit fascinate me? It got me thinking about how we get caught in traps (sin) and then we are saved (by God) but sometimes our blood supply gets cut off and we lose a part of ourselves. We cope by learning to manage with whatever methods we can find. A part of our personality or character becomes flawed, generally understood at first but in the long run it can cause permanent damage and we are unable to enjoy the God-filled life we are intended to have. For example, a heart broken one too many times leads us to be cautious about relationships with the opposite sex which leads to overexamining them which leads us to pushing anyone and everyone away because we are afraid of getting hurt. We cope by building a wall that eventually is too high and we may never enjoy the happiness of a spouse that God desired for us. But there is good news!
In the story, there were many prosthetics developed for Winter until finally they came up with a perfect fit for her. She rejected them at first until a comfortable gel-like substance that fit with ease over her stump and give her the mobility needed to be a normal dolphin. After much practice, Winter was able to go back to the up and down motions saving herself from any future complications with her spine.
Although a part of us may have become damaged in our sin, God will come in and replace what's missing with something that will help us to get back to a normal life as possible and become functional as if nothing bad had ever happened in the first place. In fact, He uses that damage to inspire others. To give them hope. To prove that life adapts and is capable of continuing on when we allow a solution to take place. We sometimes resist at first, but if we continue to allow God to keep working on us, we will eventually be able to find a perfect fit and live a good life.
Winter's tail will always be a stump. Our hurts, habits, and hang ups will always be a part of us. Winter now has a tool to help her swim properly regardless of her stump. We have a tool too to help us thrive regardless of our past.
"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raieses the dead." 2 Corinthians 1:8-9
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