Christmas Turtle Watching

There are only 100,000 or so female leatherback turtles left in the world. Thirty-three of them came to Playa Grande last year to lay their eggs. Each turtle comes six to seven times during the breeding season. Each time she lays 80 eggs, of which only a fraction are fertile. Of 1,000 eggs laid, only half will reach adulthood. Leatherback turtles eat jellyfish and other sea creatures and can grow to weigh over 1,000 pounds.

I happen to know all this because on December 27th Krista, my mom, and I went to a national park to turtle watch. We were not guaranteed to see anything, but God allowed us the great privilege of watching this giant marine reptile lay her eggs on Playa Grande in Guanacaste. The turtles come thousands of miles to lay their eggs at night on the beaches where they were born. They come anywhere from three hours before high tide or three hours after high tide. That is why we found ourselves playing games at the national park at 7 PM; there was a good possibility that we would have to wait there until 1AM.

Fortunately we were called out to the beach around 11:30. For two hours we took turns with another group of sight seers peeking at the turtle as she dug and redug a nest, laid her eggs, and covered them with sand. As she laid her eggs, we also had the privilege of watching another turtle swim toward the beach and begin climbing up to dry ground. We finally got back to where we were staying around 1:30 in the morning, sleepy, hungry, but content.
As the Christmas season ends (I still need to take down the Christmas décor at my apartment), the journey of the turtles makes me think about Mary and Joseph traveling far from home to return to Joseph’s familial home. Of thousands of babies Jesus’ age, only He survived. And now we wait for him to return.

Waiting for turtles, a bus, or an appointment is hard. We keep looking at our watches. We keep wondering, “When will it show up? I’ve already been here too long. How long will I wait?” We get anxious. We ask ourselves, “Did I get the wrong day? The wrong time? The wrong place? Did I already miss it?” And when it (whatever it was) shows up, we are so relieved we almost forget how long we spent waiting.

Is that how we are waiting now? Anxiously looking for the coming of the Lord? I know that I am guilty of being more impatient for my bus to arrive than for Jesus to return. Let’s take some of those waiting moments to remind us of how we should wait for Jesus to come back to earth. This time to take us with Him.