Soon she sees what she’s looking for: a nice fat herring. She scoops it up into her beak and then spots another one. She swims towards it and scoops it into her beak as well. Then she sees another and another. She can fit as many as 20-30 herring fish into her beak! Satisfied, with her beak full, she swims back up to the surface using her half-folded wings to propel her through the water and her webbed feet as her steering wheel. Once back to the surface she “runs” along the water as she flaps her wings furiously. She finally gets enough momentum to lift off, though clumsily. She flies back to her baby and feeds it the freshly caught herring.

This amazing bird called a Puffin is more suited to swim in water than to fly in the air. It can dive down in the water as deep as 250 feet. Puffins find their food, mostly herring, capelin, and sand lance fish, in summer, and zooplankton and krill in winter.

Two varieties of Puffins live in Alaska. Horned Puffins have black feather “horns” above their eyes in summer, and Tufted Puffins have tufts of feathers on the sides of their heads. Both species have large colorful beaks which they use to scoop up fish and krill. They spend most of their time on the open ocean, only coming back to land in the summer to breed and raise their babies.

Puffins must dive deep into the water to find food to survive. But did you know that as followers of Jesus, we must dive deep to find the spiritual food we need? We don’t dive deep into real water, but we must dive deep into God’s word. Our focus verse says we will find God when we look for Him with all our hearts. If we go to church but don’t listen to the sermon, or read our Bible but don’t try to understand, we are not looking for God with all our heart. We are like a Puffin sitting on top of the water sticking its head underneath a few times. It won’t survive that way. It must go deep.

We must dive deep just like the Puffin. Sometimes the Bible is hard to understand, but the more we listen, ask questions, and ask God to help us, the deeper we go. And the more we learn about God, the more our spirits are fed and nourished.

So, how about you? Do you want to really know God and what He is like? Do you want to feed your soul with spiritual food? If so, then dive deep like the Puffin and search for God with your whole heart.

Here are some questions for you to think about.

How does a Puffin dive so deep in the water?

What are some ways that you can dive deep and search for God with your whole heart?

God gave Puffins bodies that allow them to go deep in the water. What are some things he has given you that can help you search for him?

Prayer: Dear Father, thank you for Puffins and how you designed them to dive deep into the water. I ask you to help me dive deep too and search for you with my whole heart. Thank you for the promise that I will find you.

Fast Facts about Puffins:

• Two species of Puffins live in Alaska, Horned Puffins and Tufted Puffins.
• They spend most of their time on the open ocean, only going on land in the summer to raise their babies.
• They have beaks that are bright orange and yellow, which they use to scoop up fish and krill. They also contain numerous blood vessels which help the birds to cool off.
• Puffins have webbed feet with sharp toe claws. They use these to dig out burrows to make nests underground.
• Parents only lay one egg and take turns caring for the baby Puffin.
• Males and females look alike.
• Once grown, young Puffins don’t return to land until they are three or four years old when it’s time to breed and have their own babies.
• Puffins fold their wings in half and flap to propel them under the water. They use their feet as paddles to steer.