..growing pains.. or "going through the middle"

sitting on my couch, icepack on my head, trying to recover from "major dental surgery" I thought it would be fun to share another little Cruise tidbit with y'all :)
last port before arriving in Boston was Bar Harbour, Maine.. the coast of Maine has been on my list of places I would like to visit for some time so I booked an excursion that sounded interesting..
Cadillac mountain was beautiful with picturesque views of the stunning coast line of Maine, second stop on this excursion was the Oceanarium... the lobster museum to be precise..
other than the fact that the owner and guide was a Christian who was delighted to have a group of believers as his visitors, him sharing some pretty cool stories of how God has used him to witness to other tourists, him praying for us at the end.. he also gave us some very surprising information about lobsters..
learned that lobsters live 50-100 years, that Maine Lobstermen put female lobsters back into the water so that they can continue to have thousands of lobster babies :)
the most amazing fact though was this: lobsters shed their shell, 25 times a year in the first few years of their lives and once a year or even only every 3-4 years when they are older...
an enzyme makes the shell and the connective points softer and it takes lobsters about 15 minutes to half an hour to get out of their  shell, while "molting"  they absorb water which makes them grow about 20 % of their size... for 6-8 weeks their new shell is too soft to protect them from their predators and so they stay hidden away, bury themselves in mud and eat voraciously, often eating their old shell because of the minerals it contains..

amazed at the detail in God's Creation, seems funny to me that some people would think some big bang and random selection would be able to create something that perfectly put together..
what struck me most was that in order to grow, lobsters have to shed the old, ( I am sure the shedding / molting is not an easy task...) that it leaves them vulnerable for a time and they hide away, feeding on what gives them strength to emerge bigger and stronger in the end...
sounds familiar? sounds to me like the growing times the Lord has for us.. painful, shedding something old, in order to be changed, retreating during the vulnerable times and hiding in His arms, being nurtured and emerging stronger and wiser...

always have loved lobster... eating lobster that is.. oopsies.. but I really appreciate them now, after meeting the old Christian Lobsterman from Maine.. so blessed to have met him, another little tidbit my Jesus had for me.. thought I'd share this.. :)