Kavannah: Miracle on 34th Street

In her book Captivating, Staci shares the story of when her husband John was praying on the beach, and how a humpback whale surfaced just in front of where he was sitting. “John knew immediately that this was a gift from God to his heart alone, a gift from the Lover of his heart” (Eldredge 117). She was moved by his story, but she desired for God to speak to her that way also. Not long after, Staci also found herself on an empty beach and waited for her own whale. But none came. So she reminded herself of the precious gift of Christ’s death on the cross and of how all of creation is a gift that shows God’s extravagant generosity towards His children. She wondered if it was silly or selfish to pray for something more.

As she walked away she rounded a bend and came across a delicate orange starfish. This little starfish whispered the love and intimacy of God to her: “He answered my question. Yes. He loved me” (Eldredge 117). But then she rounded another bend, and found herself surrounded by a sea of starfish of all colors and sizes. There were hundreds of them! Each one was “an intimate gift from an intimate God” (Eldredge 118).

My room-mate Gretchen recently told me the story of when she had just been through a heartbreaking rejection. She was living in a new place where no one knew her story or the way she was fighting for healing and restoration. One night, around three in the morning, as she was crying, and praying, and writing in her journal, she wrote the words: “God, you know how people say You put your arms around them? Do You actually do that?” She closed her journal and went to bed, not waiting for an answer. But then, just a few minutes after she laid down, her room-mate came in and climbed in bed with her. She put her arms around her. God prompted the room-mate to move towards Gretchen even though it seemed as though she was sleeping, and the room-mate had never done that before.

I felt like Staci when Gretchen told me her story, I felt awe and hope and disappointment all at the same time. I had no story like that. And how would God ever send a whale to me? I live in the heart of Manhattan, on 34^th street—the same block as the empire state building. But I started praying that God would send something big- something obviously for me. And while I waited I thought about what it would be. The best and grandest gesture I could think of was if a whole flock of little birds came and sat on my apartment window sill. (I love birds.)

God sent elephants. A dozen of them. They walked right past my apartment building on 34^th street. No joke. I later found out that they walk that route every year when the circus comes to the Madison Square Gardens, because the trucks they are transported in don’t fit through the tunnels into Manhattan. They’ve come for years, and people line the streets to see them. But as I was walking back to my apartment from Matt’s at just the exact moment they went by (and they move surprisingly fast), I knew that they were there from God to me; “an intimate gift from an intimate God” (Eldredge 118).