The God Bird

 She said it was "The God Bird!"  All the rest of us thought, "Dove."  After all, we were in a worship service and what we were looking at was a Chrismon for the waiting empty tree.  We should have expected something unusual since we were in the middle of a children's sermon because in those moments, anything can happen and usually does.  When I heard the child speak up, I silently said, "Wow! It really is the God Bird!"  Doves are certainly flighty creatures, but they land all over the pages of the Holy Word.  They traveled with Noah, they showed  up in the Temple when Mary and Joseph showed up for a sacrificial moment, and also when Jesus was baptized.  

If you ask everyone except the child who said, "The God Bird,"  you would be told the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, it is a good symbol for the Chrismon Tree.  The Spirit was surely active in the unseen moment of the Incarnation.  The Spirit not only affirmed the ministry of Jesus at His baptism, but was mentioned often in the teachings of Jesus.  Before Jesus disappeared from the disciples into the heavens, He instructed them to wait in the city for the coming Holy Spirit. The book of Acts could rightly be called the book of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit speaks to us of the working arm of God.  Through the Spirit's activity the Church came into being on Pentecost and because of His presence in us, we have the inner assurance that we belong to God as sons and daughters.  The blessings the Spirit brings to us are too many to name and continue to be poured out into our lives without any word of asking.  What the child called "The God Bird" gives life to the Church and continues to give power to each one of us to accomplish all the things that God wants to do through our lives.