A bird’s nest dropped onto the driveway. Now, to be honest, a pine tree does overhang that spot, but the bird’s nest dropped beside me onto the driveway. That’s pretty close to falling from the sky, – and it was a fully-intact, but empty, bird’s nest.
Carefully, I picked up the bird’s nest, sensing that it was indeed, somehow a word-picture from God, an object lesson, if you will. Yet, the meaning of the event puzzled me.
My mind meandered about houses falling, about the nest being empty and no longer being needed as the chicks had apparently flown away as had the parents. Was this object a message to me about me? Was God telling me in not so subtle fashion that He had finished with me, dropping me, or (shudder) calling me home? I must admit that option scared me a bit. I’m like the old joke, “Sure, I want to go to Heaven, but you aren’t getting up a load today, are you?”
I really couldn’t settle on a meaning, so I conjured the bright idea to take a picture of it and post it on Facebook® soliciting input from literally anybody in the world as to what they thought it meant.
However, just before I hit “send,” a pinecone fell with a hard “thummmmp” as I was sitting on the tailgate of the truck. It missed my head by about 18 inches. Immediately and understandably, I concluded that this idea was not what God had in mind at all. (Ya think?)
My thoughts and hare-brained schemes, I yielded over to Him and just saved the post to myself, never hitting “send.”
That’s when things really began to happen. things seemingly unrelated, but perhaps, things inter-related in God’s cosmology.
The mailman came up, and I felt impressed to pray for his safety. After all, he’s a bit older than some and he’s exposed to many people every day.
The mailman prayer enlarged into a prayer for all those in high-risk professions like the ED nurse or doctor in New York who is the daughter of a friend of mine, likewise the ED RN in New York, a friend of my daughter’s.
Those thoughts simmered for a while in the prayer-stew that was reaching the boiling point inside my head – inside my spirit. Presently, the thought emerged from the grog that God was speaking in much larger terms than just about one man – me. This is unusual in our relationship. He usually tells or asks me stuff about me, or at least, that’s what I want to hear.
But I wondered if this time He was sending a message through me to the Christians in America, the Church, saying that our nest had hit rock bottom. Pair that thought with the impression of His grace that was the pinecone veering off-track just enough to avoid hitting me – or from hitting His church.
Mulling that over, He inserted the thought of a Bible study in which I am involved which originates across the country, and when I say that, I mean it as in Chimney Rock point out in the Pacific Ocean near Petaluma, CA. That’s a spot where a pastor friend of mine recently felt impelled to visit, photograph, and pray.
In that study, we are reading Psalms 120 through 134, the Psalms of Ascent prayed by Jewish pilgrims on the way up to Jerusalem for holy days. We’re at Psalm 130. The first line in Peterson’s translation/paraphrase says, “Help, God – the bottom has fallen out of my life!”
When I originally read that Psalm and thought about it, I said to myself that the bottom had not really fallen out of my life. Honestly, I’m doing okay during these troubles. (Certainly, God forbid, that could change in a heartbeat.)
In light of what else God has said to me today, I wonder if that is not a general message for the church to hear and not just for me.
All the day’s happenings came upon in rapid-fire succession. Soon, my daughter reposted a post by a pastor decrying the depths to which we as a people, we Americans, have sunk, the selfishness and greed which we either evince ourselves or tolerate in others, the inequities we have perpetrated ourselves or have tolerated, made all the worse and highlighted in these times of scarcity.
As I was processing that thought, God drew my attention to the young black neighbor across the street trying to cram too much into his garbage roll-out can. Tomorrow is garbage pick-up day. On most days, I’d just sit on my tailgate and watch in amusement, but today is not most days. God directed my attention to my roll-out can on the curb. He said, “You’ve got extra capacity in yours, unusually, what are you going to do about it?” That one, I knew.
Quickly, I hopped off my tailgate and hustled to get the roll-out can. I called out to the man across the street, “Hey, neighbor, can I give you a hand?” He was glad for the help. I rolled my can across the street and we moved some of his garbage into my can. My new neighbor expressed great gratitude for my help. I obliged and thought, “All I gave him was extra space in a garbage can. Is anything more menial than that?” Yet it’s what God wants, and I did it. Now I know the guy, the new neighbor, and we’ll be friends.
Is that an object lesson for us all? Have we sunk so low that we don’t normally think about giving space in a garbage can to someone different from us? But, then again, are we different, or are we just two average guys taking the garbage out together?
It wasn’t long before I saw another repost from my daughter, this time, a tweet from a young man for whom I have the utmost respect for his ability but more so for his character – Jalen Hurts. He simply said in the tweet, “Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ John 13:7. Just let God work His magic.”
Perhaps, that’s a good place to end and some good advice – no, a prophesy, “Just let God work His magic.”
So let it be written, so let it be done.
johnthebaptist15 