The Arctic tern is a small seabird with a big reputation. Audubon calls it a long-distance champion. It breeds in the far north, on coasts and tundra up to the northernmost land on earth. When the season changes, it heads south, and some Arctic terns may migrate farther than any other bird, flying all the way from the high Arctic to the Antarctic. Its travels take it to every ocean and near every continent. It spends most of its life on the move over open sea. Nobody hands it a map. It simply follows the path its Creator built into it, season after season. We are on a long journey too, and the God who guides the birds will guide us home.
When NASA sent the little Ingenuity helicopter to Mars, the plan was modest. It was a test, designed to make up to five experimental flights over 30 days. Nobody knew whether a helicopter could even fly in the thin Martian air. Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly on another world. Then it just kept going. It operated for almost three years, made 72 flights, and flew more than 14 times farther than planned. On January 18, 2024, during its 72nd flight, it had a rough landing that damaged its rotor blades, and the mission came to an end. A small machine meant for a short test did far more than anyone dreamed. Never despise small beginnings when God is in them.
In 2022 NASA did something no one had done before. It crashed a spacecraft called DART into a small asteroid named Dimorphos on purpose, to see if people could change an asteroid’s path if one ever threatened Earth. The impact came on September 26. Before the test, NASA said success would mean changing the asteroid’s orbit by at least 73 seconds. When astronomers measured, the orbit had changed by 32 minutes, shrinking it from 11 hours 55 minutes to 11 hours 23 minutes. DART beat the goal by more than 25 times. One small push, aimed carefully, changed the course of something huge. Never underestimate a single faithful act aimed in the right direction. God can use it to turn a whole life around.
The wood frog of the far north survives winter in a remarkable way. It freezes. Ice forms around its organs and between its skin and muscle. Its eyes turn white. Meanwhile its liver floods every cell with glucose, a sugary solution that keeps the inside of the cells from freezing. For the whole winter there is no muscle movement, no heartbeat, and no breathing. It looks like a little frog carved out of ice. Yet it is alive. When spring comes, it thaws from the inside out. First the heart starts beating. Then the brain wakes up. Finally the legs move. God’s renewal in us works the same way. He starts with the heart.
Hudson Taylor carried a burden for the millions in China’s interior who had never heard the gospel. But he was terrified of sending men and women unprotected into the unknown. In 1865 he wrote in his diary that the conflict was so intense he thought he would lose his mind. A friend invited him to Brighton on the English coast for a break. Walking along the beach, his gloom lifted. He wrote, “There the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service.” He left the consequences with God. Within a year Taylor, his family and sixteen young missionaries sailed for China. Obedience gets easier when we hand God the responsibility for results.
