Seagull on the Beach

This really happened to me in about 1980. While a casual outside observer would have seen something merely interesting, what happened in my head and heart will stay with me forever.

My folks live on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Because of erosion, there’s an extremely steep ravine that plunges from the level of the yard down maybe 800 feet to the beach. A switchback trail winds back and forth across the ravine, and is quite a treacherous climb down. There are patches of poison ivy, clouds of mosquitoes, and washouts, so you need to be extremely careful.

I always go down to the beach at least once whenever I visit them. Since access is so difficult, it’s very rare to run into anyone else on the beach. I would go down just to spend some quiet time with my thoughts. On this occasion I was walking north along the shoreline, and ahead of me I noticed a seagull making its way toward the beach. But rather than swimming with its legs, it was using its wings to paddle toward the beach. As I got within thirty feet of the point on the beach where the seagull would make landfall, I made out that a fishing lure of some kind was trailing along his body.

Obviously the seagull needed some help, so I walked toward it as it paddled ashore. As it neared shore and I walked within ten feet, it apparently got scared. It turned around and paddled back out with its wings. I backed off down the beach and waited until it started back in, then approached again. Once again it turned around and paddled back out. A third time, same thing.

Finally, I sat down on the beach and prayed. I don’t recall the exact prayer, but in essence it was “God let me help this seagull”. Again the seagull turned around and headed toward the beach. As before, I walked toward it, but this time the seagull did not stop. It dragged itself out of the water and plopped down on the sand at my feet. It was clearly exhausted. There was a double ended fishing lure with triple barbed hooks at each end hooked onto the bird. One hook was through its lower beak. A hook on the other end was through its left leg. It couldn’t eat, couldn’t swim, and couldn’t take-off to fly. I reached down, folded its dripping wing to its body, and picked it up, one hand on each side. It was water logged, but even so it was amazingly light. The seagull was extraordinarily calm in my hands.

I took my time making my way back up the ravine. I had to be careful both for my steps, and not to crush the fragile bird in my hands as I climbed. When finally I made it to the top twenty minutes later, my father and I snipped the hooks from its beak and leg. Initially I thought we would have to take care of it for a while, until it got its strength back. But once it was free of the lure, it flapped and pecked at us. So we gave it some bread, and then let it go. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the strength to fly, and it was a long way down to the beach. As it stumbled around the back yard for a few minutes, I got some leather gloves on. Then I picked it up once again and climbed back down to the beach. It was obviously impatient to be free of me, as it tried to peck at me the whole way down.

Once on the beach I put it down. It hurried back into the water, and paddled away towards a flock of gulls floating a hundred yards out, this time using its legs to swim.

Why has this stayed in my thoughts all these years? I’ve always thought of prayer as requiring endless petitions, and you never really know if the prayer will be answered. But on this one occasion in my life, God answered my prayer instantly. Explain it away if you wish, but I know in my heart what really happened.