Vigil

A few days ago I was working at my computer when I heard a startlingly loud thump at my door. When I looked out, I found a bird lying on its back on my door step.

Although breathing, blinking its eyes and twitching its legs from time to time, it clearly was a bit startled itself.

It was also beautiful.


After a few minutes it managed to flip itself over, but one side of his body didn't seem to work very well.

I grabbed my camera and sat on the porch while we both waited to find out how it was going to go with him. We have hunter cats in the neighborhood. I thought he deserved a chance against them. I sat vigil with him so I might protect him from the predators while he was so vulnerable.


He squatted down, continued blinking his eyes and breathing. Perhaps I made him nervous, perhaps he was still trying to figure out where he was and what still worked.

I was worried that his leg was sticking out at an awkward angle. I thought his feathers were smooth and beautiful and richly colored.






Normally, this bird just flits by, a glimpse of motion. Now look and see - beauty. Rich colors, soft feathers, pleasing shapes of curve and edge.

This is how it is with God. So much beauty in things unseen or hidden or too quick.




I went inside to grab a phone so I could call a friend who has some connection to bird rescue hospitals. When I came back out the bird startled and flew away in a great flap of wings. It kept low to the ground as it disappeared beyond a corner of the house and the cars. I walked out to the street, wondering if it was going to make it. If he could land on a branch and be okay or if he was doomed because his leg was broken or the concussion had left him damaged.

He was gone. Hidden in a bush perhaps or already blocks away shaking off the moment and heading back to doing what birds do.

He could yet be cat or hawk fodder.

But he is beauty. He is a sign of God's creative goodness even as he is at risk for the violence in this world.

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Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

Matthew 6:25-34