Deep Lesson in Faith
The Universe Provides . . .
I have been reading a book called Adrift, Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan, a true story. He capsized in a small boat and lived on a small rubber raft (Rubber Ducky), alone. In the part at the end when he finally reaches land and is pulled aboard a fishing boat in the Carribean, he watches the fishermen continue their jobs and looks down at the dorado fish he spent long, hot, thirsy days only in the company of and staying alive by eating them . . . he can finally drink more than a pint of water a day now-
I feel compelled to share these next two powerful paragraphs with you which he wrote:
"I camly open open my water tins. Five pints of my hoarded wealth flow down my throat. I watch the dorados below me, calmly swimming about. Yes, we part here, my friends. You do not seem betrayed. Perhaps you do not mind enriching these poor men. They will never again see a catch the likes of you. What secrets do you know I cannot even guess.
I wonder why I chanced to pack my spear gun in my emergency bag, why Solo stayed afloat just long enough for me to get my equipment. Why, when I had trouble hunting, did the dorado come closer? Why did they make it increasingly easier for me as I and my weapon became more broken and weak, until in the end they lay on their sides and right under my point? Why have they provided me just enough food to hang on for eighteen hundred nautical miles? I know that they are only fish, and I am only a man. We do what we must and only what Nature allows us to do in this life. Yet sometimes the fabric of life is woven into such a fantastic pattern. I needed a miracle and my fish gave it to me. That and more. Theyve shown me that miracles swim and fly and walk and rain down and roll away all around me. I look around at life's magnificent arena. The dorados seem almost to be leaping into the fisherman's arms. I have never felt so humble, nor so peaceful, free, and at ease."
This story is a reminder that when things happen to us, we are tested to find the silver lining . . . to see the beauty in miracles that surround us. We are receiving gifts from everywhere and need only recognise the magnitude of this and accept.