A Bird Sighting

A Baltimore Oriole showed up Sunday in one of our early flowering peach trees.  Walking across the farm with my youngest grandson and his Dad, we spotted him flitting about in the afternoon sun.  It has been a  few years since my last sighting of one so it was exciting to catch a glimpse of another  of these migratory birds which makes occasional appearances in these parts.  Once you see one, there is never any trouble identifying the next one.  Indeed, they are beautiful birds.

 

If a person can be blessed by a bird sighting, count this old guy as one who was blessed.  Of course, no one should be surprised at a blessing that come to us through the created order.  In "The Soul's Slow Ripening" Christine Valters Paintner wrote, "A ninth century Irish theologian, John Scotus Eriguena taught that there are indeed two books of revelation--the book of Scriptures and the  book of creation.  The first is physically small; the second is vast."   While some of the blessings of creation come to us suddenly like an unexpected surprise, others come as we simply allow ourselves to sit and let the creation come to us.

 

There are so many blessings to receive if we only can slow ourselves down to see all that is around us.  Most of the time we live with tunnel vision that enables us to only partially see what is right there in front of us which means that we miss so much that has the potential to enrich and bless our lives.  Unlike a landscape painting that is completed and ready to see, the creation is ever unfolding around us in such a way as to provide something new every step of the way.  This unfolding and renewing creation is full of blessings for those of us who have eyes to see.  How thankful I am that for one moment this past Sunday afternoon, I was one of those greatly blessed on the Lord's Sabbath.