It is winter.
My only feathered friend in view is my area magpie. I look for him each day. Usually he is sitting at the very top of the poplar tree beside the fence but today I look and he way west of his usual vantage point. He seems to be sitting on air…I grab my binoculars, oh yes, the bare tree trunk he is perched on is almost invisible, especially now that my eyesight is slipping. I know there is surgery in the spring. I can hardly stand someone taking a speck out of my eye let alone surgery…it will be a challenge to see if my blood pressure medication can keep me calm.
I’m not a great lover of magpies…they tend to chase everything else out of their territory. The other day I saw a chickadee in the tree outside the bay window and I was as excited as a small child that had been handed a gift…a chickadee.
I recall seeing my small grandson kneeling beside the open patio doors watching a small kitten and calling to it softly “come in please.” I wanted to say much the same, “please stay”, but a few minutes later it was gone.
But when magpies are all you’ve got, then it is magpies you watch. Actually they are rather pretty with their black and white outfits, but I have not yet learned to love them. But I know God does.
They muddle through the winters up north, when the geese are long gone and somehow they survive. They teach us endurance and faith in a Father than consistently provides for his children, but even the magpies that are interesting are not necessarily endearing.
God is as kind to us too …his children that are sometimes interesting but not always endearing. We have a lot to learn from God and magpies.
That first blast of winter always scares me and I wonder if this is the year I give up driving. It takes a good deal of courage to start out on that first trip after a heavy snowfall. The car is ready but am I?
Last Sunday was birthday brunch and it was my birthday, so I felt I really should go, bad roads or not. It is sort of like getting the Flu Shot. Once you get it you realize that it really wasn’t that bad. So off I trundled to the south end of town. I always enjoy…yes enjoy church. I love to sing praises to God, pray with my Christian friends and hear his word preached. When this is followed by fellowship, coffee and home- made cookies it is well worth the sometimes scary drive down. But like the Flu Shot the trip wasn’t so bad.
My magpie seems to take things so much better in stride. His means of transportation is simpler and I doubt if he worries if he can make it to the south side Sunday mornings. Maybe he just has more faith than I do.
Photo by Kurt Bauschardt via Flickr/CC
