The Blue Heron

I spent some time this afternoon with a long legged blue heron.  While I am not sure he sensed my presence as I watched him from the car, I sat in wonder watching him for the best part of an hour.  It was like watching a statue. He stood tall and erect on one of those spindle like legs.  When he finally moved, it was to put the other leg on the ground just before the one on the ground disappeared under one of his wide wings.  As the shadows stretched across the ground, he modeled absolute stillness.  The evening breeze stirred the finer feathers across his chest, but nothing else about him even resembled movement.   

I wanted him to run, or walk, or spread those huge wings, or maybe even fly, but he was content to be immersed in the stillness all around him.  In those moments of watching, I wondered if the blue heron and the Holy Spirit were joining to show me  a verse of Scripture read only a few days ago.  In the first Psalm the Word speaks of the righteous as those who "...meditate on His law day and night."  (Psalm 1:2)  I saw before me such stillness.  In the stillness there was such awareness.  

When he finally walked a few feet along the edge of the pond, it was with such deliberation and purpose.  Slowly he moved as if each next step was more important than the place he finally stopped.  Nothing outside the moment of his present seemed to matter.  Would that my soul could stand in a stillness where the only stirring was caused by the gentle breeze of the Holy Wind moving over my heart.