“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:27
My third daughter attended a Christian school for first grade. She came home one day, eyes wide, insisting they had talked about the “F” word in school. My jaw dropped and I began making plans to unenroll her. “The whole class talked about it, Mom,” she whispered, “fire.” What should have been a typical fire safety program, with firemen and fire trucks coming to the school to help kids learn how to be safe, rattled her. Up until then fire meant camp fires and s’mores and trips to the mountains; education taught her that fire was to be feared and fled, the stuff of nightmares.
We have a couple of “C” words in our family, one spoken and one not. The first is cookies. We talk about cookies often. The second is cancer. We avoid the word. My second daughter was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. She is a pharmacist, but what had been an academic understanding of a disease suddenly became very real and personal, education showed her that it was to be feared and fled, the stuff of nightmares.
Her journey has been painful and hard, but for the moment she is considered cancer free and we praise God. She is an academic, however, and she knows how cancer works. She continues to take a chemo pill and as long as she feels relatively good, she is determined to make memories with her family, to cross things off her bucket list and live every day. That’s why we found ourselves whale watching off the coast of Maui at the beginning of March. That’s why I prayed fervently we would spot a whale.
The crew of the Pride of Maui spotted whales almost before we left the harbor. The humpback whales we spent the day with winter in Maui, where they mate or calve and nurse their young. Then they swim to Alaska to spend the summer feeding before they circle back to Hawaii. The crew knew many of the whales by their flukes. They pointed out moms and babies, as well as males fighting over females. We saw one full breach, or at least some in our party did. I was not looking in the right direction.
Looking at the right spot is the key to whale watching. Without many landmarks to help identify a position, it is quite a trick to focus in on the whales at the right moment. The front of the boat is considered 12 o’clock and the crew and all of the guests scan the horizon. When someone sees a whale blow or fluke, they yell out the time position and everyone shifts to catch a glimpse of the whale. But whales don’t stay on the surface long so you have to be quick to identify the location. Fumble with a lens cap too long and the opportunity is missed.
We saw 35-40 whales over the course of the afternoon. Spotting them is addicting. Our eyes were focussed on the water, always watching, waiting and hoping. The captain shared an interesting story as we headed back to the harbor. Several weeks before our trip, they had submerged a video camera off the boat to hear whale song. The images they saw amazed even these whale watching pros, hundreds of whales were swimming within sight of that camera.
Looking at the right spot is key to many things in life. I missed the whale breach because I was not focussed in the right direction, I was distracted by my camera. I can think of other times in my life when I missed something important because I was distracted by a side issue. Maintaining focus, staying steady through to completion, can be difficult. The tendency is to get complacent, or to fatigue and lose sight of the end goal.
Paul discusses this idea several times in the New Testament, but specifically in Hebrews 12:1-2 he writes, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.“
My brother ran the Boston Marathon last week. He loved it. Even so, he had to keep looking toward the goal. He had to train and prepare and sacrifice hours of time to be able to compete and complete the race. Likewise my daughter has had to undergo difficult treatments and months of pain, discomfort and uncertainty to overcome and defeat the cancerous cells in her body. Both of them focus on the end goal and endure whatever it takes to finish well.
As believers, our focus needs to be on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Sometimes, like the whales, He seems hidden from view, but He is there! No matter what distracting side issues lure you to look in a different direction, no matter how much pain pressures you into thinking God does not care, no matter how much time it takes to figure out the direction God wants you to go, keep your eyes focussed on Jesus.
Running with endurance requires focus, living life purposefully requires focus, finding whales requires focus. I’m so thankful that we saw whales. I’m thankful that amidst the more sober parts of living life there can be moments of laughter and awe. Moments when a gigantic humpback whale breaks the surface of the water and hangs suspended in the air just long enough to remind the people in the boat that God is still there and He still answers prayer.
Along with many amazing memories, we brought fresh macadamia nuts home from Hawaii. I have been using them to make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies and they are delicious. I would highly suggest you take a trip to Hawaii to procure some! but short of that you will have to buy them where you can.
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- 1 cup Crisco (I am brand specific here as other solid shortening does not work the same way)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 1/2- 3 cups Gold Medal Flour
- 10 oz white chocolate chips
- 1/2 – 1 cup Macadamia Nuts, chopped
Cream crisco and sugars together, blend in eggs. Add baking soda, salt and flour. Stir until dough is slightly stiff, use more flour if the dough is sticky. Add chips and nuts. Drop on ungreased cookie sheet or roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes at 350*, until just set and lightly brown.
If you have read this far, and if you ever get to Hawaii, book a whale watching tour with The Pride of Maui, they are fantastic! They provided lunch and snacks and snorkeling gear. https://www.prideofmaui.com