Birds of a Feather

There are many signs that the season is changing, especially fall. Temperature chages and leaves changing color (I wrote about that last time) are just one. Here's another sign. I almost ran into one last week!

Flocks of starlings gather during this time of year. The flocks can get so large that they can sometimes seem to come alive as a dark undulating cloud. This is called a murmur, or murmuration. The birds do this as they gather to roost for the night.

"Will somebody just land already? I'm getting tired!"

These murmurs bring to mind a question. How do these birds not collide with one another? Why are there not dead birds covering the ground?

It's a God thing.

You can also see this behavior in large schools of fish, darting here and there to avoid predators. There IS safety in numbers.

Have you ever been in a large stadium and someone, somewhere, starts "the wave?" Synchronized standing and sitting creates the illusion of a human "wave" circling the field.

If you trace these events back to their beginning, they all start with a single bird taking flight, or a single human directing the "standing up." There is a beginning and therefore an ending. Carried to their very inception, each on them has a creator. A thought.

There are several biblical analogies to behold in the example of a murmur.

"In the beginning," God created Adam, right? Out of one man the world's population has now increased to 8.2 billion inhabitants. If we all jumped at the same time, what would happen?

When God spoke to Abraham, He  said, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing." - Genesis 12:2

By the end of the Book of Genesis (Exodus 1) the Israelites were a murmur unto themselves.

"The Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them." - Exodus 1:7

When Joshua and the Israelites conquered Jericho they all marched around the city then siddenly shouted. The city walls collapsed (Joshua 5:13 - 6:27).

A time is coming, and it is coming soon, when all God's children will be taking flight, just like those starlings. It will happen "in the twinkling of the eye" as Paul told the church is in Thessalonica. We will be like starlings in our coordinated flight up to be with Jesus.

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

Let's murmur!

Starling Murmur

The Parable of The Chickadee

A cold, cruel world exists just outside the Hall house these days. The bird feeder is always pretty well stocked but our once active birdbath is now quite empty. Much to the chagrin of one forlorn little chickadee who was looking up at me this morning.

"Hey, there's no water in the birdbath! How do you expect me to take a drink? Fly all the way down to the creek?"

I felt kind of sorry for the little guy so I put on my coat and grabbed a bucket out of the garage. I put on my shoes and my coat and ventured outside in the 35mph wind to fill up his precious little watering hole.

When I arrived on the scene with a fresh supply of water there were a few pine needles frozen in the bottom of the bird bath. There was also a frustrated little chickadee sitting right next to me in the lilac bush - supervising the fill.

After I got back inside I looked out and saw my little chickadee friend taking a drink. He took a sip and then looked up at me. Another sip and another look in my direction. That's something this world could use a lot more of. Compassion. And thanks.

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." - Colossians 3:12

Later that day the bird bath in our yard was filled with birds - all drinking the water and taking baths. My wife and I love to watch our backyard birds so we feed them and give them water. They repay our kindness by simply being who they are.

I watched the following video in the evening as I prepared this story for you. There was a hand-written message offered at its conclusion. How right it is.

A simple act of caring creates an endless ripple - that comes back to you.

Compassion In Action

The Rescuer

It didn't occur to me until this morning, the significance of what I had done the other day. Looking back on it now I feel like it was a message of some sort. A message that needs to be told.

I am building a tiny home in our yard. It's slow going to be sure but I am almost done with the exterior. Each morning I walk up to the job  site and open all the windows and the door. I have been doing that since, well, since there were windows and a door.

Periodically bugs get in and beat themselves senseless against the windows trying to get back out side. "Have you tried the open door?" I ask to myself, shaking my head in disbelief. Well, the other day THIS happened. All on the same day, all within the span of a few hours.

I was working most of the morning, putting siding on the tiny home. Painting, caulking, but I was getting hungry so I decided to take a break. When I got back to our regular house I heard a low, buzzing noise. I looked up to see a hummingbird, trapped in the rafters of our garage. It must have flown in through the open overhead door and couldn't see a way to get back out.

So I opened the service door and the two garage windows for some more obvious exits and went in to eat my lunch. When my meal was over I checked on the hummingbird. It was still in there buzzing so I went back up to the tiny house.

When I got there I heard and saw a fluttering of wings - a female Evening Grosbeak was INSIDE the tiny home. It had come in through the open door but couldn't find its way back out. I tried grabbing it but it was too freaked out and scared to allow it. It eventually landed on top of the open door and I directed it downward with my hand to freedom and off it went.

A few hours later I returned to the big house to get something and noticed that the hummingbird was gone. "Well, that's good," I thought to myself as I walked bake to the tiny house. When I arrived, I again noticed the fluttering of wings inside the tiny home.

"Again?" I thought? Yep. This time it was a Monarch butterfly. My favorite kind of butterfly. I reached out to it, gently, and held it inside my closed hand. Opening it slowly outside, I set it free and it was on its way.

There are so many different directions to go with this story, it's almost unbelievable. I'll start with the hummingbird, which eventually found its own way out of the garage. Some people are like that. You can show them what they need to do in life and eventually they can figure it out for themselves. But people waste a lot of time trying to find things out on their own, searching for answers. If they'd only listen.

Some people require direction when they get in trouble, like the grosbeak. They need a guiding hand to point them in the direction they should go. When they "see the light" they take off, never to return to the trap they found themselves in.

Then there are others who will die in the trap the found themselves in. There are numerous flies, wasps and bees in the windows of my tiny house because no one showed them the way out. But the beautiful butterfly was noticed by someone who cared for it. Like I said, the Monarch is my favorite butterfly. I took the time to actually, physically, rescue it.

Who is the butterfly in YOUR life who needs to be held, guided, loved and then released?

Jesus will provide for our every need. NEED, not want. He will guide us and direct us to where He wants us to be. But we DO need to open our eyes and see. We DO need to think and respond to His leading. If we don't we are destined to keep going around the mountain, around the mountain, around the mountain. Beating ourselves senseless against that ways of this world.

Jesus is OUR rescuer. He desires that no one should perish. But we have to allow Him to work in us and through us to save us. May God rescue those whom YOU love. May He guide them to safety and may they not become too damaged on their way to freedom in His arms.

37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." - Matthew 23:37

Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Food

My wife and I love our furry and feathery backyard buddies. We have lots of birds that visit our feeder. We also have lots of deer that feed on my wife's plants. She hates the deer eating her plants but she loves the deer in the backyard. Ironic.

We use black sunflower seeds in our bird feeder. That brings in chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, blue-jays. Even and occasional deer! We also have a block of suit for for our long-billed buddies - woodpeckers and flickers. The nuthatches like suit too. They're not very picky eaters.

We've been on the lookout for a new backyard visitor lately. One we didn't even know we had in our area - a black bear. My wife came home one night last week and said the sheriff's department (my wife works at the county courthouse) had reported a bear had been hit on Highway 54 just west of the county line. Gee. That's where WE live. The DNR was called and it was discovered that the bear that had been hit and killed was a mama bear, and she had been nursing. So, they searched the area and found a den with two cubs and a papa bear inside. The DNR took the cubs so they could be nursed (and survive) and left daddy bear by his lonesome in the den. Oh, and that den just so happens to be at the bottom of the hill leading into our subdivision. Comforting.

The woods can be a beautiful place to spend time with God. I did that a lot last year. But it is a very good idea to know what you might run into. What we know or what we do not know could save your life.

When Paul visited the church in Corinth he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His brothers and sisters in the faith, who he had been instructed in the ways of the Lord, had fallen away from their faith all together. They had been overrun by the sin and corruption that plagued the city, when they should have grown in their faith and been an example to their community. Paul had given them the basics of the faith (milk he calls it) and not the weightier details of what it means to be a Christian.

"Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?" - 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

Though you and I might profess to be Christians, do we act like we are? If we were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us? Are we living a life worthy of our calling? Or have we backslidden to where we resemble the unsaved?

When I was walking past the big blackberry bush at the bottom of the hill last summer I never gave much thought to the fact that bears LOVE blackberries or that a bear family might have a den in the area. But now I AM aware and I can take guard against any possible physical encounters with a hungry papa bear (who just recently lost his entire family . . . at the hands of man). I can be prepared.

Here's a question. How do we know we are sinning if no one has ever told us? If "the whole world is doing it" how can it be wrong?

"11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." - Hebrews 5:11-14

First and foremost, people just simply need to know Jesus. No if's, and's or but's. They not only need to KNOW Him, they need to obey Him. People need to surrender their lives, the lives they are screwing up SO badly by themselves, to a God who can help them straighten their lives out by offering more than what this world has to offer. But to get that, people need to surrender. They need to recognize their fallen nature, they need to repent of that and change their ways. Then they need to start following Christ. Instead of living with just a knowledge of Him, they need to live FOR Him and for His kingdom. Only then can we eat of the "meat" in what we believe.

The Last Supper from Jesus of Nazareth