Turtle X-ing

On my way to church yesterday I was in a long line of cars driving down Church Road. It runs by Cousler Park which has a creek and a pond. As the line of cars was driving past the park, the lead car swerved to the right, and then the following car did the same until I came to the same spot and I saw why they were swerving. Right next to the double yellow line was a huge snapping turtle trying to cross the road. It had it’s huge head sticking out looking around trying to figure out which way to go. Something in me urged me to stop and help it across the road. So, I quickly pulled off the road and ran back to the spot where the turtle was. Guess what! It was still there (yeah, it’s a turtle).

So when I was right beside it I pointed it out to the cars coming by so that they wouldn’t hit it. But there was one guy in a little Japanese car who was barreling down on it. His driver’s side tire was in line to run over it. Horror creeped over me as I realized that he was going to hit it. But at the last moment he swerved into the middle of the road so that the middle of the car went over the turtle. So, what did I hear? I heard a huge KAH-NICK! I was worried that it would be majorly hurt…but I couldn’t even see where the car nicked it. The turtle’s shell was so thick.

I had to do this fast, because there were a bunch of cars on the road going to different churches. So I dashed out there, grabbed it between it’s front legs and back legs. As I grabbed it, it’s head went into it’s shell (as far as it could go…which wasn’t very far), and it hissed. And he dug at my hands with his claws. He dug at me until I put him down on the other side of the road.

But he was safe.

I would take the clawing if it meant he would be safe.

It made me think of being with in community. Sometimes I get hurt when I am trying to help my friends. And they dig at me and dig at me the whole time I am helping them. It’s not until the end that they realize what was happening. And they might not even realize it then.