The Miracle of the Dolphins

Today Sterling and I got up at the crack of dawn partially with a purpose and partially because of Sterling’s active dreaming. For the first time in our married life, Sterling’s night visions led to him physically hitting me. First he kicked me just after 2 a.m. then just before 6 a.m. he punched me in the arm and slapped me in the mouth simultaneously. Turns out that’s what happens when he dreams he’s playing basketball. Or maybe he was just so excited about the upcoming day’s events. We’d booked a snorkeling trip for one of our last days in Hawaii and that day had finally arrived.

We were staying in Kihei and had to travel to a nearby town to where the boat would launch. By 8:30 a.m. we were enjoying continental breakfast on the high seas. Within a half hour we moored at Molokini., the top of a partially submerged volcanic crater. That’s when the fun really began. The reefs offered a plethora of sea creatures.

The friendliest, the black triggerfish, swam right up to our masks. Thankfully an infant shark didn’t show the same fortitude. When I spotted it I naturally called Sterling’s attention to it then followed it until it disappeared from view. Seemed like the smart thing to do after watching hours of “Shark Week” on Discovery Channel. If I learned anything in my invested time it was that sharks don’t actually want to hurt humans. Although Soul Surfer led me to believe otherwise.

At any rate, we survived the close encounter with the shark and took in the colorful medley of coral, urchins, eels and more fish than Pike Place. After an hour sailed by, we were summoned back to the boat. On to the next adventure. Unfortunately for Sterling, the trip was less than enjoyable. Early in our snorkeling expedition he’d somehow inhaled a ton of sea water (his least favourite flavour at the best of times). Apparently that experience lingered as his face washed white within minutes of us getting back on the boat.

If anybody knows me, they know I HATE puking. Hate it. If someone around me says they feel sick, I automatically become Mrs. Fix-It. I’ve done a lot of research on how to alleviate nausea because for years, I refused to throw up. It became something of a skill albeit ridiculous (just ask my Mom or Grammie).

Anyways, we gave up our seats down below and spent the duration of the hour and a half trip on the upper deck. I spent the majority of our trip scanning the seas for any sign of dolphins we’d been assured would be there. Anything to distract me from my sick husband. Thankfully, Sterling never lost his lunch, in fact he kept new food down. Needless to say though, by the time we got to Lanai (Lan-ay-ee) we were both eager to get out of the boat and into the water.

Immediately Sterling and I broke away from the group (there were about 125 fellow snorkelers onboard). We were rewarded for our initiative. We came across a massive school of yellow angelfish and coasted along with them until a rainbow fish caught our fancy. This continued for the next hour then it was time to head out again. Thankfully this time though Sterling hadn’t recently inhaled a lungful of sea water.

We headed out and this time I was eager to get us up on the top deck again. First of all, a woman right next to our seats had a clear plastic bag on her lap for her bout with sea sickness, and secondly, we hadn’t seen any dolphins yet.

Settled in for the hour and a half leg of our return trip, I strained for any sign of a dorsal fin or splashing in the distance. Every white cap got my heart racing. After 45 minutes of searching in vain, I threw out a hail mary. I said a quick prayer. “Father, please help us see some dolphins”.

Even as I said amen, I thought this was a wasted prayer. First of all, there are much more important and prayer worthy things in the world. Drought in Africa, nations recovering from natural disaster and rioting. And here I am, uttering a prayer about my desire to see dolphins.

I quickly discarded my regret for uttering the prayer and tried to use the time to have some quality conversation with Sterling. He clearly wasn’t having it (I later found out he was still feeing quite sick) so I found myself a little downtrodden and naturally my eyes reverted to the water just below me.

As I stared at the waves splashing below me I started thinking about prayers and answers to prayers. I argued to myself that Heavenly Father can only answer prayers when we have faith and are obedient. I’d been struggling with both lately in my opinion. I had let so many important things slip lately. My temple attendance was abysmal if it existed at all. When I did go, I did so with a poor attitude and with little preparation. Though I read scriptures daily, my scripture study had suffered greatly over the course of a year and a half. My prayers were casual and infrequent. Worst, I felt so inferior and inadequate in my current church calling. I felt I wasn’t doing enough and was letting so many people down. My visiting teaching had become a chore and my competitive spirit had turned to a vindictive enmity in every game I played.

With these thoughts of guilt and inferiority running through my head I assured myself that Heavenly Father could not answer my simple prayer because blessings come to those who are obedient. Not slackers with decent intentions.

Just as my guilt turned to embarrassment for even wasting Father’s time the darndest thing happened. Suddenly a gray shadow appeared in my line of sight. Then another one. In an instant I recognized it was two dolphins swimming at the bow of the boat. I started nudging Sterling, saying “Dolphins! Dolphins!” Then reached for my camera just as the pair disappeared from view. I turned behind me and told others there were dolphins and could feel a rush of people flocking to where I stood. Then I returned my gaze to where the pair had appeared and saw….nothing.

Earlier in the day I’d read that spinner dolphins would often swim in the wake of a boat because it was easier than fighting the currents. I looked at the stern of the boat and again, nothing.

Within minutes the naturalist on board came to me and asked what I’d seen. He asked if I’d seen the body and the head. Thinking he wanted me to identify the dolphins, I admitted that I couldn’t tell what kind of dorsal fin they had and whether they had blunt or narrow snouts. He asked again if I saw the body and the head and I said yeah, but the woman at the front of the boat probably saw more because she was closer. He said he thought it was just a shark that we’d seen because usually dolphins will float to the stern of the boat and trail in the wake.

I told him it wasn’t a shark but a dolphin and he just dismissed it and walked away.

Then it hit me.

Heavenly Father had so kindly, mercilessly and graciously answered my prayer. Even though I didn’t deserve it. What were the odds that we would leave our seats and stand in that precise spot and stop scanning the seas and look immediately below us at that time?

In a split second, the dolphins appeared then were gone. Had we not been looking at that spot at that very time, I wouldn’t be writing this. Tears came to my eyes as I expressed gratitude to my loving Heavenly Father. Even though I’d put Him and His work on the farthest back burner, He hadn’t forgotten nor forsaken me.

Then I started thinking about Joseph Smith, the first prophet of this last dispensation in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Three of us out of 149 on the boat had seen the dolphins. Sterling and the other woman admitted they’d only seen gray animals and weren’t sure what they’d seen. Sterling was without his glasses though and the woman spoke only Spanish so I wasn’t sure they were the best witnesses.

I knew I’d seen two dolphins though. I knew it and could not deny it or be persuaded to think otherwise. This naturalist could doubt all he wanted because the dolphins didn’t follow their typical style of play with the boat. I knew that I had seen those dolphins because Heavenly Father had answered a simple prayer.

I thought of Joseph Smith in that moment. There he was, a young boy. He had seen God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. He knew it, he knew God knew it, and he could not deny it. Yet many of those he told ridiculed him and doubted him. As I looked out at a spanning sea under an azure sky I felt so much love and appreciation for Joseph Smith and for our Creator who was at the helm of it all. He is the one driving everything. I may have lost sight of that somewhere along the way but the miracle of the dolphins, a simple moment, renewed my faith and desire to be a little better, do a little more and serve a little stronger. And for that, I am thankful.