Listening for the Birds
Hello Church Family! Pastor Melissa here… Here we are nearing the end of the first week, for many of you as parents, who are homeschooling their kids… I can only imagine the challenges and creative ways you have had to come up with in this new endeavor, on top of those working from home and trying to balance it all…
I never thought we’d be looking ahead to week 3 (for us Midlanders) of staying home and practicing social distance…. Then I was reminded of the folks in Italy who have been entirely on lockdown for most of the month of March and in the epicenter, Wuhan China, it’s been over 60 days of this “new normal”…
So many days that they say the skies are actually blue again and you can constantly hear the birds singing as Spring arrives there.
We don’t have a problem viewing the beautiful skies here in West Texas, and most of the time we can hear the calls of the doves and cackle of the grackles…. But it does remind me of the time I got to see a red cardinal up close and personal. I was on one of the Spiritual Formation Retreats Daniel Harris puts together for us. We were at Christ the King center in San Angelo, which if you haven’t been there it’s like an oasis right in the middle of town….
There’s a river that runs through San Angelo and right alongside the property. During a long break I walked down to the river to sit for a while and take in my surroundings. I had just come off a very busy and full week and this was my one chance to decompress. I wasn’t there long when I spotted the red cardinal from across the river. I was stunned by its vibrant color and was fixated on it. The bird flew across the river and landed on a tree on my side of the river and I was able to see it even better!
A few minutes later it flew to a tree that was literally within arm’s length of me and it was the most beautiful bird I had ever seen up close and in person. I didn’t dare move a muscle, afraid it would fly off. For what seemed like a really long time for a bird, just sat there together, watching each other, in this place of meeting and I knew it was special…
You see, I had been feeling tired and anxious and had let the distractions of life, be my focus for so long, I had forgotten how to just sit and notice, how to just be in the moment without constantly worrying and thinking of what comes next…..
As soon as I allowed myself the time and space to sit and be, to pay attention to the moment I am in instead of worrying about what will be…. God met me in that place and restored hope in me once again.
It may seem like we have a lot of time and space right now…
It may also seem like we are continually being stripped of more in the days to come…. But when we allow ourselves to be open to God, it’s also the place where God can continually meet us, and that by His presence he can change the nature of that place.
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6: 26
It’s because of this time, we have seen community and creativity soar to new levels, we have new perspective of what it means to slow down and not be in a hurry. So as we look towards the next week and all the things it will bring to us in the news, as we continue to work on homeschooling kids, as we continue to see some of the devastating ways the Corona virus has affected our world….All the worriess that continue to occupy our time… remember God can meet us here too.
Look up, look around, listen for the birds, and know that God is in this place, God is longing to be with us, because we are that valuable to him.
Prayer –
Heavenly Father,
We continue to try and walk through each day as it brings new obstacles to overcome, new things to learn, new ways of living in this world. It’s still so easy to become distracted and worried about what’s available and what is not. Worried about what comes next and how will we handle it? Father, remind us that it is you who covers the sky with clouds, who provides for the birds of the air and you tell us we are more precious to you than anything else. Remind us each day to stop, look and listen, because that is the place where we can meet you today. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen
