I’m mowing the grass on a gorgeous April afternoon. It was the first time I had mowed this particular patch of grass this year. It was windy, and of course the wind was constantly blowing in the wrong direction, at least wrong for me, and all the grass I was blowing out immediately blew back onto me. It’s a double edged sword mowing on days like this, because the grass dries quickly and blows away, but also plasters me in the process, the sacrifices we make for nice lawns, I mean really.
I like to think I have a pretty good eye. As I was bouncing along, something caught my attention…it was a bird. A bird that really, really didn’t want to move from her spot on the ground, but, against her natural intuition, she took flight and proceeded to make a back and forth pattern not too far above me and let her voice be heard.
I stopped and canvased the area around me and then I spotted it. Her nest. A rather small depression scratched into the gravel and in it were eggs, pale green speckled with black, 4 of them.
I got off the mower to take a closer look, hoping that in doing so, she didn’t decide to get any closer to let me know I wasn’t welcome. I looked around me and found 2 pieces of bark that I placed on either side of the tiny nest as a marker. I didn’t want to run over them, and they blended into the small bit of gravel and dirt around it so perfectly, that every time I looked away, I had to find it again.
So, I got back onto the mower and hoped she would find her way back to the nest she was so fiercely protecting. I was across the road in another patch of grass and I glanced over and realized that she did, in fact, find her way back and was settled on top of the eggs in a position that was protective, alert, and fully covered those fragile eggs.
When I realized these were eggs on the ground, my first thought was, “Well mama, you could not have picked a worse spot to do this.” The nest was about 6 feet from the road, and well, in the dirt…on the ground. And yet, mama bird picked it, she or her mate dug a little hole in the ground and she is now committed to nesting there for close to a month. I looked up what kind of eggs these were and found out this was a killdeer. This bird lays their eggs on the ground, this is normal for them. They pick a spot that will camouflage the eggs so predators are less likely to see them when they are unprotected. So, this is instinct for them.
So…as nature frequently does, I think this story can teach us something.
My initial thought response to seeing this was, how often do we in our humanness think something looks perfect, and we plan for it and do all the right things, but may not realize we’re 6 feet from the road and the lawn mower is coming right towards us?
How do we as women who are wives, moms, friends, co-workers, leaders, caretakers, friends, etc. live our lives in a way that we feel confident in our actions and decisions as we navigate our lives. And, the effect those decisions have on not only our lives, but also the people we are closest to and have influence over. I have had many conversations with women about how we know we are in God’s will for our lives. We want so much to follow it, to be aligned with it, but how can we be sure? It can feel overwhelming and confusing.
Well, I’m certainly not the authority on this, but here’s one thing I’ve learned.
Dwell with…Abide with…Pray to…Listen for…Be still with…Surrender to…Trust…Get to know…Read about…Sing to…Commune with…Embrace…Breathe in…these are all phrases that end with the name of Jesus.
The truth of it is, sometimes, we just don’t know. We don’t know if we’re doing it right, if we’re making the right decisions, giving the right answers. But, with-ness, this word that means being close to or connected with, is what Jesus wants for us and what we should strive for in our everyday lives, not just on Sunday, but everyday. Just keep going and don’t quit. And that’s a really good start. Being with and connected to God, but also to others who are trying just as hard as you to live in the Way of the Waymaker.
How do you get to know someone, and how do you get better at something? You spend time with them, you practice the things that help you learn and grow in that relationship. This is the way we become closer to, and learn to rely on and trust in Jesus. I feel like the goal is to get to a place where the trust is not circumstantial, it’s already there no matter the situation and you know the plans are good, even if it doesn’t feel that way, even if it never feels that way, because you know deep in your soul God is for you. It matters to know God’s word in a way that it shapes your decisions, your conversations, your thoughts. This is how we do it, how we align ourselves with God’s will for our lives.
Is this fail safe? Of course not. I mean, Jesus, yeah…fail safe. He’ll never fail us, we can rest in that truth all day long. But us, we do killdeer kinda stuff and build our nest too close to the road sometimes. We can get it wrong even if we “go with our gut”. I’m human, and so are you. We have limits. We have finite minds that even with the best of intentions sometimes get it totally wrong. And this is why it’s so important to intentionally and wholeheartedly live life with Jesus. Not just when life gets hard.
God takes care of the birds, and he will take care of you. He promised.
I leave you with a favorite benediction from the book of Jude:
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Dawn