His Eye is on the Sparrow

I've been reflecting on my experiences in Iraq, pretty much ever since I got home. One keeps coming back to me. I came across it in my journal today--

We serve an awesome God. You already knew that, but let me tell you about my day. Yesterday and last night the evil one was really trying to throw fear at me. We went out to ____ today. That is the route where we’ve had our 2 KIAs on.

I had a good day yesterday, I got caught up on some stuff, I got a package ready to send to home. The enemy starts trying to twist all that to “putting your house in order, eh? Good thing….”

Prayed last night, prayed this morning. I know it is in God’s hands....., I’m sitting there waiting for it to start and a gull flies overhead. I get a pretty good look at him, jot some notes in hope that I can identify him later. After the change of command I look, sure enough, Black-headed Gull. Lifer.

We go over to link up with the patrol. What am I riding in the back of? An up-armored MRAP. Take the already enormous and armored MRAP and put some great big armor plates on the sides of it. I was smart enough to catch that that was a God thing.

Make it out there fine, .... I wander around a bit and see some big mud puddles in an open area. Well, what do you know? There are birds feeding there. Grab my binoculars, watched, took notes. It’s good just to see birds.

....Come back safe and sound. I’m exhausted. Riding around just wears me out anyway, I think it’s the subconscious stress…which today wasn’t quite so "sub."

Come back here and pull out my notes and start looking through my bird book….3 more lifers. Ringed Plover, Little Stint and Common Redshank. As I am sitting here thinking wow…not quite what I was contemplating last night, it finally hits me. “See…I know the plans I have for you…they are for good.” Thank You, God. You want us to have joy, not fear. You are beautiful.

In sort of a variation on one of the verses from Psalm 63, which God has been using to speak to me the past several days, I took a picture of a House Sparrow in the shadow of an MRAP. You an see him on the left tire. And he was singing. Here’s the verse—

“Because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings.” (63:7)



God was almost yelling at me today, wasn’t He?

Serenity

On our recent vacation, among the many places we visited, kayaked and birded, one of them was Fort DeSoto County Park near Tampa, Florida. This park has long been one of my favorites, especially the north beach area. If you are there at low tide, there is a spot that is great for shorebirds and waders.



Here are some White Ibis feeding.

This was my first time at DeSoto with my kayak, however...this opened up whole new areas of the park to explore, like this great sand bar that was literally covered in waders. Here's a Reddish Egret I was able to drift up close to.


That's it for now...I will probably continue to post some things from this trip for a while...we saw a lot!

Lampasass River

We loaded up the kayaks and decided to try a more riverine experience with them last Friday. We put in on the Lampasass River and paddled upstream for a while then floated back, and had dinner on the way. It was rather peaceful.


We had a flock of Northern Rough-Winged Swallows in a tree by where we ate. We could see a few nest holes in the opposite bank.



We saw these Neotropical Bluets enjoying themselves on a floating log....(Props to my lovely wife for taking this picture for me.)

Looking forward to our big trip here soon....I hope I'll have lots to share with you all from that...until then...keep floating!

Back in the Green and Blue

Well, I am back from Iraq....yeah!

We've bought a couple kayaks (Manta Ray 12's from Lakeline Watersports) and I'm enjoying seeing grass and trees and bodies of water again.

I have officially been to Ireland now, speaking of green....what makes it "offical" you ask? Why adding Hooded Crow to my life list, of course! That was a productive refueling stop!

Enjoying regularly seeing the central Texas regulars again--Scissortailed Flycatchers, Northern Mockingbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, Northern Cardinals....yes, it is good to be home again in so many ways.

Gotcha....Now What Are You?

This little damselfly came and visited me last Sunday....it was quite lethargic....I finally set it outside and eventually it went away...I don't know if it was under its own power or it became lunch for something else....hopefully someday, I can find a guide that will let me identify this little beauty.

On the off chance an odonata expert is reading this...I was near Al-Amarah, Iraq.

Take a Closer Look...

When Jesus tells us to "Look at the birds of the air," (Matthew 6:26) the Greek word translated "look" carries more force than the way we typically look at things. Both the meaning and the tense of the verb imply a detailed look, consideration, even study.

I mention this because recently I was back at "the pond" at LSA Adder in Iraq, and for some reason (I don't know why) I had got in my head that there might be another black and white kingfisher in Iraq besides the Pied Kingfisher that I regularly see here. So I was looking at the kingfishers. I took notes, I sketched the patterns of the breast-bands (very similar to Belted Kingfishers by the way) the markings on the top and bottom of the tail, bill length, shape….I was studying these birds. I was doing this, of course, because I wanted to be able to prove to myself that I had or had not seen this other fictional kingfisher I had dreamed up, when I got back and checked with my field guide.

God, of course, was setting me up. I love it when He does that, most of the time.

I was also reading a devotional written by Amy Carmichael while I was out there at the pond. It was short and she talked about how God can speak to us through a single word in His Word sometimes. How it will jump out, catch us, and we will get to know it, and Him, better if we take the time to consider it.

So, I get back to my room later in the day, I flip open my field guide to the kingfishers and….there is only Pied Kingfisher. Nothing else black and white. Not even close. Huh, well, why did I think there was? My answer is, sometimes I'm just a bonehead. I'll see something and it will trigger something else in my mind and…well, you get the idea.

But, almost as soon as I looked up from the page, God said, "Yeah, well, you know that bird a lot better now, don't you?" He, of course, was right. Now I knew the Pied Kingfisher better, appreciated it's subtle details more, because I had taken the time to really look at it.

The same thing applies to our study of His Word. I've been reading the Bible for over 20 years. I've taken courses on it, studied it, and taught it. There becomes a real danger of treating it like I was treating those kingfishers. Glance up, "kingfisher, black and white, it's a Pied," and move on. How often have a done the same thing with His Word?

I got really convicted a couple of years ago on this. I think this was just a reminder. I had got into the habit of sort of skimming scripture quotes in books I was reading. You know…you're reading along and the author quotes a few verses of scripture to support a point. Yeah, I'd just sort of skim them with a "yeah, got it" attitude. Until God smacked me upside the head (metaphorically speaking, of course) and convicted me that I was skipping the most important part of the book. After all, it's His Word that brings us life, not someone else's commentary on it.

So, I am challenged to find ways to prompt myself to see the familiar anew. To read the scriptures as if they might say something different than I thought, even if I come to find they say what I think they say, I will know that truth better for the process.

And isn't that the point of reading it in the first place?

While I'm Waiting....

Just hanging out waiting to fly home on leave. It's a nice break, for the most part.


Crested Larks are rather ubiquitous. The remind me of mini Roadrunners as they do just that--run
.

Spanish Sparrow that was with a flock of House Sparrows.

Look at the Birds

I have said on and off throughout the years, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that my favorite Bible verse is Matthew 6:26, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

Now, obvious to those who know me the "look at the birds" injunction appeals to me because I enjoy looking at birds. But, there are spiritual lessons to be learned by observing the physical world around us. David recognized that when he said, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1)

I was sitting by a pond the other day, waiting on both the birds and our common maker. I saw that God makes different birds with different temperaments. There was a Little Egret standing on the bank for some time and then he began his day's work of wading around the edge hunting for food. A Pied Kingfisher was hovering and hunting and caught a small fish. Then it ate it and sat on a rock by the waters edge. Eventually it was joined by another, and they sat together, quietly.

I try to resist the tendency to anthropomorphize wildlife, at least immediately, in order to learn what they are really doing. As best as I can see, the kingfishers were content. God had provided for them, and the received. What was going through their minds I have no way to know. If I project myself onto them, I imagine perhaps they were offering thanksgiving to their Creator for another meal, another day.

I sat by the pond for a few hours. I even napped a bit. God does not always show up with power, but He is always present. I felt that the "lesson for the day" was that sometimes it is just good to hang out with a friend. Especially when He is the Alpha and Omega. And that is what I felt like I did for those hours. We enjoyed the pond, this little oasis in the midst of a dry and thirsty land.

And as I started to think about leaving, onto other tasks, He showed off a little. He called forth 4 lifers, one by one, in the space of maybe 30 minutes, saving the most spectacular looking one for last, a Common Kingfisher, bathed in the rays of that bright middle eastern sun. Look at the birds of the air, indeed. If we miss them, something is wrong with us, I think.