Abiding in Yeshua

Not long ago I saw a documentary featuring the gray whale migration from Mexico to Alaska.  A mother and her new calf, born just a few months earlier, were passing off the coast of Monterey, California, when they were attacked by a pod of killer whales.  The story showed the hunting strategies of the six killer whales and the rare escape of the two grays.

Since an adult gray is far too large for a killer whale to overtake, the baby calf was the prey.  The main strategy of the killer whales was to separate the calf from its mother.  A brutal struggle went on for hours.  With the two grays becoming weaker and weaker, I couldn’t imagine how the two whales would ever rid themselves of the strong and determined predators. 

But the calf seemed to understand the paramount goal of never getting separated from its mother.  If the pod could create the smallest space between them, they could win the battle.  So the mother and calf worked in concert to stay bonded together at any cost, clinging to each other.  Most of the time they looked like one whale.  Their bodies moved as one, up, down, sideways – striving to never allow a break in their connection.

It occurred to me, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” (John 15:4a)  Perhaps this is what it looks like when we abide in Yeshua.  This frightened calf was “abiding” in his mother as his only hope for life, his only protection from the enemy.  Still, it looked to me, and probably to the worn out calf, as if it were just a matter of time before the mother would be too weak to protect him.

But the mother was wise and had knowledge the calf (or I) could not fathom.  Imperceptibly, the battle slowly ebbed toward shore.  Suddenly in the throes of the struggle, the pod of killer whales stopped their battering and swam away.  What the mother knew was that killer whales in that area won’t go into water under a certain depth — in this case the threshold was 60 feet deep.  She knew if she could just move in close enough to shore, the pod would retreat and she could save her calf.

Similarly, God rescues and cares for us, His children, in ways sometimes imperceptible and unimaginable to us.  But the reverse is also true:  the mother had no way of protecting her calf unless he clung to her.  Had he tried to fight along with her or make his own plan to get away, he would not have survived.  There are times when all we need to focus on is abiding in Yeshua:

“Choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” Deut. 30:19-20