Photo Credit Steve Smith – Unsplash
By Jane Korvemaker
There’s a time of year when in the early morning, I can still see my breath issue forth like a beak before me, and yet I need only my sweater to keep warm while walking. It was at such a time that my son and I started taking walks in the early morning.
As it happened, he later needed a school research project. Since we walk by two storm ponds, I encouraged him to choose to research the birds that dwell in these areas. We borrowed a ‘Birding Backpack’ from our library, which included very nice binoculars and a handy on-the-go pamphlet of birds for our area, borrowed some books, and off we went.
Revelations
I’ve discovered that it’s remarkable what the human brain can ignore if it doesn’t think it’s important. Before deciding to learn about the birds of the ponds, we hardly noticed any distinguishing features between them. The extent of our classifications could be summed up as those on the water and those that seemed to live in the nearby reeds. And, of course, the terrifying Canada Geese.
We would huff and puff on by, noticing the planes taking off or the new houses being built, but we weren’t walking to get to know the birds, and so we didn’t listen or look for them. Despite their sometimes loud cries or single lone notes pitched across the rippling pond, they were rather easy to ignore.
This is a rather striking similarity to my spiritual life. I can’t say I always hear God’s voice speaking to me, but I do believe there is a constant murmur. My faults lie in not thinking it’s important and ignoring it or not recognizing the cries or soft murmurs as from the Spirit.
Beauty, Birds, and Beastly Times
I recently experienced a period of time that I might call an anxiety attack. Dark thoughts, fears being played out imaginatively, anxiousness over bad choices made, and many reasons to give up hope…so many streams of negative thoughts pummeled my brain for a few days. While I’ve experienced these over the course of my life several times, this episode was much longer and much more exhausting.
As I was on my way to pray at a church one day, I recognized a voice amidst the dark thoughts, as one might notice a soft and simple melodious composition for the first time, coming from a patch of familiar reeds. The refrain spoke of the love of the Father for me and that I was his beloved daughter. The surprising part to me was that there was a familiarity to the murmur of the notes, as though they had always been sung there, but never before had I truly listened to the words in the dark of these nights. The words I would have recognized by daylight; in the dark, however, they were sung by an unfamiliar tune.
Humans are, indeed, a people provoked by beauty. Beauty touches our wonder and curiosity in a way that facts alone cannot contain. Being struck by the soft-spoken beautiful song from the reeds, my curiosity drew me to find the source. It was here, in that step toward Beauty, that the darkness slowly started to fade.
Beauty Beckons Us Closer
Sometimes we race by Beauty unhindered, fleeing our own past, our sins, our struggles with mental or physical illness, or other such things. And sometimes, when the timing is right, even while our bodies are stuck in patterns of survival and we cut out all except what is absolutely necessary, we are suddenly made aware of the beauty of Divine Love’s words to us.
Whatever situation we might find ourselves in, God is there, speaking our name and calling us to him. The form of the call is as unique to each of his children as the variation of the songs of birds, reflecting the deep love and knowledge he has personally for us. Maybe we are able to hear his melody often, or maybe it seems to fade in darker times, but he is always there waiting to love and welcome us in the very moment we turn to him.
Our early mornings are still spent trundling down the path to the ponds. Now we spend more time waiting and listening. We spend time observing and can now recognise the markings and calls of the different birds. It didn’t take much to turn our hearts to loving and finding joy in these birds. Who knows what other alluring intonations can carry the truth of the Father’s love to us? We just need to be a little more attentive to God’s love being proclaimed through creation’s melodies and be open to the one who is Beauty.
Jane Korvemaker is a B.C. transplant who lives in Saskatoon with her husband, three children, and mischievous cat. She holds a Certificate in Culinary Arts, Bachelor of Theology, Certificate in Youth Ministry Studies, and is a Level Two Catechist in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She hopes to one day find the perfect pairing of bacon, beer, and Balthasar. She semi-regularly writes at ajk2.ca
