31 March 2009

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.







15 March 2009

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?