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A few years ago, when my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, we took a bucket-list trip to Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. I have always had a love and fascination with turtles and tortoises but had never seen a live sea turtle in the wild. I prayed this would be my chance.

And sure enough, we were informed by neighbors of the VRBO home in which we stayed that there was a sea turtle living at the nearby reef. My husband and I decided to swim to the reef that afternoon. The Caribbean waters of the bay on which our VRBO was located were crystal clear and calm like a swimming pool. The water is very salty, making for easy swimming and snorkeling. Even though the reef was a few hundred yards away, near enough for us to swim there and back, we decided, at the last minute, to take kayaks instead.

As we kayaked to the reef, what should we stumble upon but the sea turtle we sought. I was amazed and excited. I was so excited, in fact, that I thought I would jump out of my kayak into the water to swim with the turtle, but the water was over 20 feet deep at that point, and I was unsure how I would get back into the kayak without the ability to stand on firm ground and steady the wobbly boat. So again, at the last minute, I decided staying in the kayak was a wiser decision.

Just then, still following the turtle, I almost ran the tip of my kayak into two large reef sharks! Their silvery-gray skin and pointed fins were very visible as they broke the surface of the water, clearly feeding on small fish around the reef.

I was terrified! Although they were reef sharks, which are reasonably safe compared to something like a great white shark, my heart was pounding. I yelled, “Sharks!” and began paddling backward. In my haste, the kayak became very wobbly, so I had to steady myself and the boat, or I would have tumbled into the deep, clear water in the midst of the feeding sharks.

Never in my life have I been so grateful for last-minute changes. If we had swum to the reef as we originally planned, I would have been face to face with the large sharks. If I had jumped out of the kayak as originally planned, I would have been face to face with the large sharks. The kayak was small and wobbly, but boy, was I glad it stood between the sharks and me.

That afternoon, I was reminded that even our smallest decisions can matter more than we realize. My husband and I had our plans: swimming to the reef, jumping in the water, snorkeling with a sea turtle. But, thanks be to God, the day unfolded differently. Decision by decision, moment by moment, those little changes may have protected us from a very different encounter.

Scripture reminds us, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Sometimes the Lord guides our lives not through dramatic interventions, but through what Scripture calls a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12): a quiet sense that perhaps we should take the kayak instead of swimming or stay in the boat instead of jumping into the calm water.

That day, God graciously allowed me to cross something off my bucket list. I finally saw a sea turtle in the wild, and it was as amazing as I’d imagined. But He also reminded me that even when we are chasing something beautiful, it is still wise to trust the Creator, who knows the waters ahead. In many ways, this is what we hope to teach our students at Christ Classical Academy of Charlotte. Life will take them into deep waters: places that are both scary and beautiful. Our prayer is that they learn to listen for the Lord’s guidance and trust that He is directing their steps (or their paddle strokes as the case may be) along the way. Because the Lord knows what lies ahead long before we do, and He can help us experience what is beautiful without swimming among the sharks.