Birds

I have come to love birds. I thoroughly enjoy watching them. They fascinate me. They humor me. They endear themselves to me. Their songs give me joy. I especially love the small finches and hummingbirds.

While in the backyard today, I looked up in the sky and saw several black birds repeatedly attacking a hawk that was calmly and persistently circling round and round in the same general area. My husband thought they might be crows, but I couldn't tell. I have seen small birds go after a hawk in order to protect their nest from becoming the predator's dinner --- but I have never seen the birds get so close that they were actually pecking at the hawk's wings mid-flight. With each peck, the hawk's flight would stutter for a moment and then go back to its slow, purposeful, circular glide. It was equally fascinating and devastating to watch. The black birds won this time, but there will be another attack in the future.

So it got me to thinking --- am I rooting for the black birds or the hawk? At first I sided completely with the smaller birds thinking of the hawk as evil coming to kill the occupants of the nest. I saw them as righteous victors, protecting what was theirs. Then I got to thinking about the hawk. What if it was a mother hawk who was looking for food for her own nest of young hawks? Wasn't she equally righteous in her quest?

What if we gave the participants of this drama another name? What if the hawk was Satan? The slow,deliberate moves of this animal reminded me of Satan's very methodical, planned and relentless quest to cause us to stumble. And, if at first he doesn't succeed, he will return. The small birds are men and women who are equipped with God's Word and Truth to peck back at Satan and keep him at bay.

Don't like the idea of Satan? Okay, name him something else. Your addictions. Your fears. Your unkindness. Your lies. Your pride. Your bad choices. Your _____. I'm not preaching here. I'm tracking with you. I'm walking in shoes of vulnerability, too. In fact, every woman in our Groovy Tuesdays group would be nodding their collective heads in unison with what I am saying. We are all vulnerable to attack.

I want peace despite my circumstances. I want daily joy regardless of what I am facing. I can only do it with Jesus.