A MEDITATION: PIGEONS

I saw God’s love yesterday. As often the case I saw it through a prism of earthly hues. It was early and I would eventually prepare breakfast for my wife and me. I had some time.

First, I saw the pigeon. She had outwitted me at least three times, coming into our front balcony with intentions of building a nest. I outwitted her two times, taking away her nesting place and then throwing away the sticks and stuff she had gathered for the nest. It was not a fair fight. By the time I got back from a brief time away she had come, prepared a lesser nest in an unused flower pot and laid two eggs. Now I know when I am defeated. I am not a pigeon lover, doves are my choice, but in this case I am being changed. I have watched this lady bird totally rearrange her life around the potential of other lives. We have become quite friendly with one another, I am getting more forward with her and she is becoming less fearful of me. It was the eggs that did it, each of them a potential for life. I might shoo away a pesky pigeon but I was not about to destroy a life potential.

So I waited and watched and meditated as God-given instincts took over in her and in me and yesterday was the payoff: two baby pigeons. I had totally capitulated to the fact of my defeat and fed her when her mate didn’t come back. I even talked kindly to her as she sat on the eggs ever so gently for weeks. I felt like a part of the process.

It was a wonderful, all-wise God who made the creatures and equipped them with instincts that speak of Himself and us. Bound by these instincts, Mrs. Pigeon went to great inconveniences to bring these lives into the world. Had she been Mrs. Jones or Miss Smith, having a choice, she could have determined that she was not ready for such drastic responsibilities or inconveniences and opted to crush the eggs with her feet or root them out of the nest, watching them splatter on the surface of our balcony floor. She would have been quite within the bounds of law and in agreement with the A.C.L.U. and most politicians. But she was a bird and not a woman, bound by inner drives given by a loving, just and merciful God.

Yesterday as I watched the little baby birds nestle in their new world under the careful, gentle weight of their mother. I nestled, in response under the gentle, ever-present weight of divine providence and somehow knew that all was well in this turbulent world Now, we will wait until the little birds grow up enough to leave their nest and the cycle of life goes on. Next time I will be a little softer, more permissive, and silently grateful for the lady bird that out-deceived me three times to two, won my admiration and reminded me of my Father’s love.

By the way, though I do not dislike pigeons anymore, doves still remain my choice.

JRT