For I, the Lord your God ... say to you, "Fear not, I will help you.                                                             -Isaiah 41:13

When my close friend Betty was hospitalized with cancer, she called me one morning to say she'd had a vivd dream. She was drowning in a vast body of water when a dolphin swam toward her and pulled her to shore. It was the first real hope I'd heard in her voice.

Feeling a sudden inspiration, I called all over town searching for a helium-filled dolphin balloon to tie on her bed. Believe it or not, I found one. Throughout her hospitalization it floated over her bed, a smiling sign of hope. "I pray one day God sends you a dolphin when you need one", she said, hugging me.

A year went by and Betty recovered, despite an uncertain prognosis. That summer I walked along a lonely stretch of beach on Harbor Island, South Carolina, unable to shake a mild feeling of depression. Numerous problems awaited me at home and they seemed to be looming larger and larger in my mind. I waded into the ocean and stood where the sand dropped off sharply and curved into Helena Sound. Suddenly I was startled by a smiling bottle-nose dolphin, which splashed out of the water twenty yards away. He dived and surfaced before me in a shining, spinning spray of joy. I began to laugh, feeling an exhilarating wonder. And somehow in those moments, my problems found their way back into perspective and the depression dissolved.

Perhaps it's silly, but I can't help but wonder if God answered Betty's prayer and sent me that dolphin. It's so like Him, isn't it, to send us help when we need it? To send balloons and dolphins and friends to meet the needs His children feel.

Father, today I will watch for the wondrous and surprising ways in which You surface in my life.        -Sue Monk Kidd