Perhaps it was a storm with great waves and high winds that caused the young orca whale to get separated from his mother and their pod. Nobody knows for sure, but when the young whale swam into Nootka Sound off Vancouver Island, he was all alone. Marine biologists identified him as Luna of the L-pod. Scientists always name the young orcas in the Pacific Northwest when they are born. Since no two orca whales look quite the same, they can easily identify them by their distinctive black and white markings.
In Nootka Sound, Luna found all the salmon he wanted for food. But his mother and the L-pod swam nearly a hundred miles away near the San Juan Islands.
Orcas, also called killer whales, are highly social animals. That means they need to be with others of their own kind to keep them content. They hunt together, play together and protect each other. The older whales instruct the younger ones in the skills they need to survive.
When Luna was no longer with other whales, he became lonely and began looking for attention from people. He would swim up to boats, and if they stopped he would give them a slight bump. Often he would swim alongside a boat, looking for a friendly scratch on the back or a belly rub.
When word got out that a killer whale was being friendly to boaters in Nootka Sound, people came from all over to see the whale that was gradually becoming tame. Luna was quite a sensation with lots of people. However, the marine biologists were not happy about the killer whale's interest in humans.
By the end of the first summer, he had become so fearless that he was pushing boats around and had actually broken the rudders on a few. And he had been hurt when he bumped into a sharp propeller and got a big cut over one eye.
The biologists realized that it wasn't in the young whale's best interest to be overly friendly with people. They could foresee that the more he was around people the less likely it was that he would return to his pod. It was decided that Luna should be captured, loaded onto a special truck, and driven to the far side of the island where he would be released in the water not far from where his own pod was swimming. Once back with his own pod, they hoped he would return to his natural instinct of avoiding people.
When God created orca whales, He gave them social natures and family pods to keep them content and happy. People are social creatures too, and God wants us to have loving parents and families as well. In addition, God has given mankind something very special that He didn't give to any other creature. He has given us hearts that can never be truly happy unless we come to know Him and His love for us. He has made our hearts so large that only He can fill them and give us lasting happiness and satisfaction. You and I might try to fill our hearts with all sorts of things, but there will always be an emptiness there unless we know God as our loving Father.
Our sins have separated us from God and left us with that emptiness in our hearts, but He has provided the remedy that will bring us back to Himself. God sent His own beloved Son to die on Calvary's cross in the sinner's place. In the hours of darkness while He hung on the cross, Christ Jesus suffered the agony of our sins so that we might be saved. "Christ also bath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God"
(1 Peter 3:18). If you will come to God through faith in His Son, He will make you one of His own family and never let you go.
Luna remained swimming alone in Nootka Sound until enough money was raised to take him back to his whale family. However, cost does not stand in the way of your returning to God. The great cost has already been paid in full for the saving of any soul who will return to God through His Son Christ Jesus. He wants you to know for yourself His love which passes understanding. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Will you come back to God and become a part of His family? "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).