Birds of a feather

Last night we had a time of prayer out on the land our church owns.   It is a beautiful 10 acre plot, quiet and serene, a whispering creek running across it, a majestic giant of a tree in the middle of it.  An absolutely beautiful, sunny, blue skied, gentle breeze kind of an evening.  A perfect place for prayer, we were awestruck from the start by the spectacular artistry of our creator.  If this is the fallen world, what will heaven be like?

The smallest of things has been a reminder of Gods beautiful creation this last week.  We have a new, actually 2, new bird feeders on our back deck.  Without a doubt this is the most entertaining addition to our home in a long time.  The whole family, even a too cool, jaded teenager,  can be found sitting looking out the back window watching the birds come and go.  The first bird to visit was a morning dove that has been a fixture at our house for years.  She would come and walk along the deck rail each morning even without the promise of a meal.  She was incredibly interested in the feeders from the moment she caught site (or smell) of them.  I watched as she paced up and down the rail, not quite sure how to get to them.  (We have them hanging on hooks extended off the side of the deck).  She finally kind of leaped to the roof of one, turning around and around trying to figure out how to get to the food below her.  She bounced back and forth from one feeder to the other completely perplexed.  She hopped back to the deck rail, tentatively perched on the edge, trying to talk herself into trying it again.  Apparently the little bar on the side intended for the birds to stand on while eating was too small or too close to the feeder for her.  I couldn't watch her anxious attempts any longer.  I went out to the deck took the feeder off the hook and set it on the corner of the deck rail itself.  As soon as I was back inside, she flew back, curiously looked at the now accessible feeder and skipped up and started breakfast.  She spent so long there eating I was afraid she would be so stuffed her little wings wouldn't be able to lift her back to the trees.

My ingenious husband has made the feeder easier to get to by attaching a copper pipe to the bottom for her and her friends to perch on while they eat.  We now have many daily visitors, cardinals and finches, blackbirds and blue jays, even the huge red headed wood pecker that visits our chimney every morning.  We watch them eat, we observe their flight paths from tree to deck, to feeder.  Sometimes if we are out on the deck, they'll swoop in for a meal, realize at the last minute that there is danger (us), and abort the landing and fly under the deck and back around to a neighboring tree.  One night as we sat on the deck eating dinner, our friendly wood pecker planted himself on a tree across the way and played peek a boo with us.  We could see his body, and he would back his head around, peek at us from behind the tree, then hide himself again for a few seconds, before starting all over again.  This went on for about five hilarious minutes before he finally gave up and flew away until later when we were safely back inside.

Who would have thought that a little cedar bird feeder would have provided such a hypnotizing show and brought us all together, away from our video games and computer screens and cell phones?  And in the process reminded us how amazing is the beauty of Gods creation around us.