The Gift of the Red Bird
I have been enjoying morning walks around ACU this week. My walks are part of my time with God in the mornings. I love taking pictures of the sun rising and of delights along the way. Some days I listen to praise and worship music, some I listen to podcasts of sermons, but every day I am attentively looking around me for the beauty that cries out in worship to their creator. Each day I look for something I haven't seen before. A couple of days ago after seeing some beautiful images that included birds on Instagram, I wished that I could take some bird pictures, too. So I spent one of my walks looking at birds, none close enough to take a picture of with my phone, though. At the end of my walk I asked God to bring me a bird for me to take a picture of with my phone, any bird, a little brown bird, a big black bird, I wasn't picky...just a bird, please Lord. I know this might sound silly, but I love taking pictures with my phone, and I love finding meaning in the beauty that God has placed before me to take a picture of.
Most of me wanted the bird, for the birds sake, but a smidgen wanted God to enter into my days and say, I hear, and I care, you are my beloved. So a couple of days go by and I go for my walk today and I wondered, will today be the day that I might be able to get a picture of a bird up close. I rounded the corner and in front of the Administration building there was a bird that was standing still in some pretty grass, I was able to zoom in a bit and got a picture of it before it flew off. I thought, thank you Lord. You gave me a bird that was still, and I was able to zoom in and get a picture of. A big black bird, with a blue sheen on it's back. Here is the bird with a bit of editing done in snapseed to give the image a warm antique tone. I love the negative space in this image, it is peaceful. I was thankful for my little bird friend.
After my walk I went to the Quiet Place for prayer, listen to some worship music on my ear buds and read through Psalms 113-116 which is where I am finding even more reason to be thankful to God this week. Such beautiful words.
I then went up to my Pentateuch class which starts at 9:30am. When I got into the classroom a couple of young men were looking through the window at a bird, I assumed it was a small brown bird as that seems to be what flies around most when I look out the window into the trees. I went over to get a glimpse of it and caught a sight of a beautiful red cardinal that was just flying off. I was sad I hadn't gotten my phone out quickly to get a picture of it. I went back to my desk and sat down. Class still had a couple of minutes before starting so I went back to the window with my phone and watched the cardinal as it flew around, and then it flew closer, and closer, and it landed directly on the other side of the glass from me, and it stayed put.
I took about 20 pictures of this beautiful bird and the whole time I heard God saying, you asked for a bird...here is a beautiful bird, just for you. And it sat there longer than I had time to take pictures of it. And then through class the bird just flew around outside my window, even knocking into the glass on occasions. This is not unusual for birds outside this window, but I felt like God was just saying each time the bird got my attention over, and over, here I am, delight in Me, trust in Me, be faithful to Me, I will give you the desires of your heart. I choked back tears through class today, I was overwhelmed, I was grateful. Thank you Father, my beloved. And here is my beautiful red bird.
Most of me wanted the bird, for the birds sake, but a smidgen wanted God to enter into my days and say, I hear, and I care, you are my beloved. So a couple of days go by and I go for my walk today and I wondered, will today be the day that I might be able to get a picture of a bird up close. I rounded the corner and in front of the Administration building there was a bird that was standing still in some pretty grass, I was able to zoom in a bit and got a picture of it before it flew off. I thought, thank you Lord. You gave me a bird that was still, and I was able to zoom in and get a picture of. A big black bird, with a blue sheen on it's back. Here is the bird with a bit of editing done in snapseed to give the image a warm antique tone. I love the negative space in this image, it is peaceful. I was thankful for my little bird friend.
After my walk I went to the Quiet Place for prayer, listen to some worship music on my ear buds and read through Psalms 113-116 which is where I am finding even more reason to be thankful to God this week. Such beautiful words.
I then went up to my Pentateuch class which starts at 9:30am. When I got into the classroom a couple of young men were looking through the window at a bird, I assumed it was a small brown bird as that seems to be what flies around most when I look out the window into the trees. I went over to get a glimpse of it and caught a sight of a beautiful red cardinal that was just flying off. I was sad I hadn't gotten my phone out quickly to get a picture of it. I went back to my desk and sat down. Class still had a couple of minutes before starting so I went back to the window with my phone and watched the cardinal as it flew around, and then it flew closer, and closer, and it landed directly on the other side of the glass from me, and it stayed put.
I took about 20 pictures of this beautiful bird and the whole time I heard God saying, you asked for a bird...here is a beautiful bird, just for you. And it sat there longer than I had time to take pictures of it. And then through class the bird just flew around outside my window, even knocking into the glass on occasions. This is not unusual for birds outside this window, but I felt like God was just saying each time the bird got my attention over, and over, here I am, delight in Me, trust in Me, be faithful to Me, I will give you the desires of your heart. I choked back tears through class today, I was overwhelmed, I was grateful. Thank you Father, my beloved. And here is my beautiful red bird.
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