While on vacation at Emerald Isle, North Carolina, one of our favorite places to enjoy the sun and surf, we had a beach experience that few people ever get to witness: the hatching of loggerhead sea turtles! Volunteers from the Sea Turtle Protection Program at Emerald Isle walk the entire 12.5 miles of the beach early each morning, from May 1 through August 31, looking for evidence that a sea turtle has come ashore during the night to lay her eggs.

Because loggerheads are an endangered species, the location of the nest and the dates of possible hatching are never advertised. Fortunately, this nest was located very close to our beach access where it had been roped off to keep beachgoers from tampering or damaging it. Based on the turtles’ gestation period of about two months, the team of volunteers monitoring the site had informed us that the time was near.

On a beautiful moonlit evening, about 30 people had gathered around the nest to witness this amazing spectacle. We were instructed not to use any lights or make any loud noises as this could distract the hatchlings from their course to the sea. Around the marked off area, some standing, some sitting, it had the feel of a religious ritual, a solemn vigil, as if waiting for a miracle.

As the hours passed, some grew weary, gave up and left the beach. Finally, well into the night it began: the nest caved into an inverted cone. Slowly from the bottom of that cone in the sand movement could be detected. At exactly 12:14 a.m., the hatchlings erupted in what is called “the boil,” since the little turtles appear to be boiling up out of the sand. Instinctively, about 100 turtles, each the size of a palm, followed a moonlit path to the sea.

Standing there with my grandson, Virgil, was a memory I shall never forget and hopefully neither will he. The hatchlings are born with enough energy to swim four to five days, about 30 to 50 miles to the Gulf Stream. Once there, they will swim thousands of miles where, in about 15 to 20 years, they grow to maturity. Due to predation and human interference, only about one in a thousand loggerheads will reach adulthood. The ones that do will eventually migrate back to the very beach where they hatched to start the process over again.

I’m sure some who witnessed the event that night may have wondered at the evolutionary biological processes that eventually, over millions of years, instilled these creatures with their innate homing devices. Perhaps they stood amazed at how “mother nature” worked through temperature and time to bring those baby loggerheads out of their sandy incubator.

But for me, it was witnessing God’s handiwork, a true miracle. There is no better explanation for what we saw that evening than the Creator instilling the turtles with the necessary “magnetic map” to guide them on their journey. The Lord equipped them with the ability to do what he designed them to do for his glory.

The Bible says, “Ask now the beasts, and they will instruct you…who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?” (Job 12:7, 9) The night of the Loggerheads was a beautiful reminder that our God is sovereign over his creation. And while the heavens declare the glory of God, the turtles on Emerald Isle certainly do their part.