Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2.

We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding…giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. Colossians 1:9, 12.

As I sit with God in quiet and in prayer, my soul finds rest. In this world we find fear and worry dictating outcomes and that mindset leaches into our own hearts. What we pray for seems so unreachable when we are consumed with fears for our loved ones. Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is not limited. Nothing is impossible for God. The very things we worry are so negative and impossible are the very seeds of our deepest need for Him and the help only He can bring. And our chapter, Jonah 2, picks up where Jonah was left…thrown overboard into the deep; with the ship he was aboard moving swiftly away now that the seas have calmed. Can you imagine? Jonah was literally running away from everything God wanted for Him to do – preach repentance to the people of Nineveh…and…love his “unlovable” neighbor. That’s a hard ask for any of us. But, are we, like Jonah, the “unlovable” neighbor? Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But You, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. v. 1-10. I can picture a whale shark…the world’s largest fish, up to 61.7 ft. (18.8 m) long. Mouths open wide, they filter in huge amounts of plankton, tiny aquatic organisms. Try to imagine what that must have been like. Are we open to what Scripture tells us is real or do we place God in so narrow a space that we are unable to make sense of Him when He acts? He is bigger than what our narrow, confined experiences in this life can possibly prepare us to understand. Job didn’t want Nineveh to repent and know the love and hope of God. And by living that…he didn’t yet know the love and hope of God. What about us? The kingdom of light…I was visiting my sister and niece and her two kids and all their furry animals the past few days. We sat outside as the night was approaching and the backyard was filled with lightning bugs! I haven’t seen those incredible insects since I was a teenager. Imagine! “Lampyridae, also known as fireflies or lightning bugs, are a family of soft-bodied beetles that use bioluminescence to communicate, primarily for mating.” It was magical. God designs magical! He is working even now in this world of lightning bugs, whale fish, and hearts needing to be with Him, where love and hope dwell together. Why would we run away from that?