The Timberdoodle

II Peter 3:9 -- "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

Image: © Gerrit Vyn

Watching the Timberdoodle  [aka The American Woodcock] at Dawn or at Dusk might make one wonder why they are on the list of the top ten slowest animals. They certainly move faster than the snail or the Koala [also on the list]. So what makes them qualify?

During the spring time, like most male birds flirting with the thought of procreation, these little coastal forest dwellers put a wonderful little dance. Almost human-like they take a few slow steps while bobbing up and down. Put to music, this little show becomes hilarious as it really would seem that these little guys are grooving down to some unheard beat. Compared to other bird displays of courtship - the Timberdoodle is quite slow. And while I can't help but smile while watching YouTube videos featuring this little feathered Casanova, his painstaking little footwork IS very intentional. He simply will NOT be rushed. Every single little bob up and down is quite deliberate.

Even taking to the air they seem to be taking their time. Instead of dive bombing the females or making quick darts to the ground, they kind of zig-zag their way down, much like a feather floating on the breeze. 

It's the same while they forage for worms and other tasty little insects on the damp floor of pocket forests along the coast. The slowly bob up and down, probing the earth, now and then pulling out a tasty little treat. Watching them at work, its a wonder they are able to evade predators.

To the human eye it would seem that these birds only have one gear ... slow. But really, they are moving about in the exact way they were created to. WE might think them slow, but what do WE really know of slowness? We aren't a Timberdoodle. 

When I came across II Peter 3:9 today I thought of this little bird on the top ten slowest animals list. We humans have a pretty closed-minded interpretation of movement. We think in terms of slow and fast - but perhaps, like the little Timberdoodle, it's all about being patient. Each timid little step he takes while he bee-bops along puts him one step closer to his goal of a female, or food. He's patient in his movement. He knows it takes a certain style to get him what he wants. 

What about us? As we have become a smaller and smaller world due to lightning fast communications and social media, we might thing our Father is moving quite slowly. When will our Lord return? When will the misery, the hunger, the sadness, and war mongering stop? Why does our Father take soooooo loooooong to grant us peace? Return to us, dear Jesus so the turmoil can end ..... 

II Peter tells us why: The Lord isn't moving slowly as we think of slowness. Instead, He's moving patiently. He very truly doesn't want to lose a single one of us and so - is offering us the very precious gift of time. 

Maybe I shouldn't complain about that.

Falling Flat

Revelation 3:16 -- "So because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

The big bold drops of cold condensation dripping from the side of the bottle made the anticipation of that first punch of sharp crisp flavor all the more great as I popped the top on my soda. The hiss made by the bottle cap as it came off was all part of the experience.

It was movie night at the Dalton house. Nothing says movie night like my fresh stove-top popped popcorn [hold the butter] and a cold soft drink to go with it. There is nostalgia oozing from the lightly salted snack followed by the tingle of cold cola. 

Immediately, Steven's face scrunched up in a strange and unhappy expression as he tilted his head back and took a big gulp from his bottle. A fraction of a second later, mine did the same. Imagine the shear disappointment of the moment as our eager taste buds came to the startling realization that the pop part of our soda-pop was missing. Ick. Just .... ick.

I managed to swallow mine but Steven took his mouth full of very flat soda to the sink where he deposited it into the drain, chasing it down with the remaining contents of his bottle. 

"I'm not drinking that." he declared. "THAT is terrible."

"Yeah, I'm not drinking mine, either." I answered. 

How can an entire six pack of just purchased soda be flat? I will probably never find out the answer, but it most certainly REALLY, really was very, very flat. 

Resigning ourselves to drink anything else with our popcorn we sat back down on the sofa to resume our movie. Enjoyable as it was, it just wasn't the same. 

The experience left me thinking of Revelation 3:16. The soda was palatable, I guess. I mean, it didn't make us gag or anything - but it was NOT good. So, while it wasn't so awful that - if we were left on a desert island and that was all we had to drink we would die of thirst - it certainly wasn't something I would dash right out to buy again. In fact, I wanted my three bucks back.

Maybe that's what the writer of this passage in Revelation meant. To the church, he wanted to express that he recognized a lack of pop. A lack of sizzle. It's not that the congregation was terrible. But they certainly weren't on fire. 

The daughter of two very incredible people who've demonstrated all that comes with growing a very strong marriage, I've learned that passion in a union requires attention. It requires cultivation - even work sometimes. Our relationship with Jesus isn't any different. Our growth in our Lord and the deeds that fruit from it aren't going to blossom brilliantly if we don't put some time into it. We can make it a hot relationship or even a cold one. But perhaps it isn't really a GREAT one, unless we maintain it's fizz. We don't want to be spit out like a very flat soda. 

I really, really don't want to be spit out.

One of the things that strikes me about this verse is the fact that it says: "I'm about to .... spit you out." It doesn't say I'm going to. Or I have already decided to. It makes me think we have the opportunity to change the outcome of the situation. We CAN choose to be different. To make a difference. We can choose to be HOT. Enjoyable. Sustainable. Pleasant. 

We can cling to the word of our Lord. We can decide NOT to be fall flat.

Like Lightning

Romans 5:3b -- "And we boast in the hope of the glory of God."

In the dim light of our master bedroom I could see that outside, the night would light up each time a crack of thunder escorted lightning through the boiling clouds. The winds picked up, and now then, I could hear debris hit the glass on our windows.

No question about it - I do love a good rain storm. But -- more than two weeks into a wet holding pattern of sub-tropical weather and I'll admit that I'm ready for a peek of sunshine. I try not to complain because I remember that the Okefenokee needs this down pour. The Florida water table needs this down pour. And our formerly very dry Florida wet lands need this down pour.

Okefenokee Image: Wikipedia.org [images.fws.gov]

And then it hit me - it never rains forever. I can smile and enjoy the light show because I know that when the next low pressure system gets pushed over by a high pressure system [or vice versa], the rains will dissipate and the sun will again pop out from behind the clouds. When it does - everything will be lush and green.

One of my all time favorite song writer/singers, Michael W Smith, said: into every life a little rain must fall. And isn't that the truth?! I know that there are times when each of us is faced with a little more rain than we think we need. A family member falls ill ... AGAIN. The check book doesn't quite balance ... AGAIN ... or we have car trouble ... AGAIN.  Maybe it's work, or church, or school ... but there will be moments when we feel like throwing up our hands in despair or crying out in utter frustration.

When my very favorite pair of Sketchers air walks soaks through because the car is parked next to a puddle with more than an inch of cold rain water ... believe me, I feel the weight and semi-gloom due to so much rain. When my phone makes that really loud alert because we are under yet another flood warning I begin to wonder if this isn't more rain that we really need.

But ... God REALLY IS in complete control of the weather. The stuff both outside my windows and in my life.

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge - Image: © Chris Cami Photography

In his book Lightning, Dean Koontz wrote: In tragedy and despair, when an endless night seems to have fallen, hope can be found in the realization that the companion of night is not another night, that the companion of night is day, that darkness always gives way to light, and that death rules only half of creation, life the other half.

And ya know what? That's the honest truth of it. We really CAN boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Because -- we KNOW that the battle to end all storms has already been won. The companion of night is NOT another night. It's the dawn when the sun comes up and gives bright pink sun rises with fog that burns off in the glorious warmth if day break.

So THERE! Take that darkness. Take that night gloom and doom. Jesus died on the cross for man. We have been ushered into grace never ending.

Neener neener boo boo to you!

Blue Dragons

Philippians 2:1-2 -- "Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind." 

Wide, wonderful, and weird is our blue planet and all the marvelous things God created to inhabit it. In fact, so vast is the blue part of this amazing place in which we live that we have yet to discover much of it. We know so very little of the ocean's depths and churning waters. It astounds me, really.

Wriggling to the top of my own "weird and wonderful" charts is the beautiful but lethal Blue Dragon. A Nudibranch - the behaviors of which are only just now being studied. In fact, this amazing sea slug is a relative new comer to the scientific community. It was only recently discovered that even more astonishing than it's seemingly delicate anatomy is the Blue Dragon's ruthless ability to stalk and feed on another blue but deadly beauty - the Blue Bottle jellyfish [aka: the Portuguese Man of War].

This little angelic looking and smallish sea slug stings if the conditions are right. And man, does it pack a punch! In fact, when an Australian woman was stung during a competitive swimming event, it was thought that the culprit was the Blue Bottle jellyfish. None could be found, however. Not anywhere. After hours and hours of searching for the hazard to the biathletes, a tiny floating blue and white creature was discovered - and the race to learn more about the Blue Dragon began.

Where did it live? How did it feed? How did it sting? Did it produce it's own venom and if so - how did it so closely resemble that of the infamous Portuguese Man of War?

Photos by Scott and Jeanette Johnson, from Kwajalein Underwater

So like The Portuguese Man of War is the Blue Dragon sting that the look and feel of them are very hard to distinguish from one another! And the treatment of such stings on a person's body is exactly the same.

And now we know why.

As it turns out, the Blue Dragon steals the sting of the Blue Bottle jellyfish as it feeds upon it, taking the little needle-like protrusions for its own defense. Pretty clever!


Which made me think ... how cool would it be if I were so Christ-like that people would find my actions and spirit difficult to distinguish from those of my Lord and Savior? The little Blue Dragon has exactly the right idea, does it not? Perhaps I can feed on the words of Jesus so much that I "leak" them out in my behavior. In my words. In my deeds. And even in my thoughts.

What an inspiration are you, little Blue Dragon. How mighty an example from so tiny a thing.