God's Little Joys Along the Road

Psalm 104:12 “Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.” 

The little joys that are bestowed upon us in the midst of the miserable and mundane catch us quite unawares and fill us with joy.  Last night I was outside, miserably damp and unwilling, suffering from a reaction to a covid shot about 1 am.  Sunny (my good, old shih tzu) insisted he had to go and I struggled down the stairs and onto the lawn, grateful that mostly no one could see me hunched in a jacket and nightgown.    He watered this place and that place and then we struck out across the middle to the ants nest which is also a large tree stump that he usually likes.  Halfway across the lawn he stopped and just stood there looking up, tipping his head this way and that, searching the vast black void of sky above us.  I waited impatiently.  Old dogs!  So stupid sometimes!   He was there so long and refusing to move that I started to crawl out of my shell and listen and watch.  He was looking intelligent.  Attentive.  And into the fog of my sleep befuddled brain, I heard it!  The songs of many small birds, peeping and chirping back and forth across the spaces.  Some were low and some were high, some seemed to be even in the sky above us.  They chirped and tweeted back and forth constantly like frogs in the spring but it was neither spring nor were they on the ground.  Suddenly I was in a magical place, and, like Sunny, I was riveted in this globe of nocturnal song and darkness and peace.  I returned eventually and climbed the stairs to my bed and sleep.

This morning we were out there again and with daylight, the trees were full of migrating warblers.  Flashing olive and lemon yellow among the trees, calling out and chirping nonstop as they hopped up the trees to the top, changed trees and started again, filled with excitement and promise and enthusiasm for life, the joy of life, just living to the fullest.  Why do we call it ‘bird brain’?  They were completely right and I was so wrong!  Praise God that he gave us birds in the night.  Thank you Lord that you gave me the privilege of being part of a wild bird migration in a moment of self-centeredness.  The moment of that transportation will linger with me long.  I hope I remember the lesson of God’s faithfulness and love the rest of my life.  So gently done!

Nancy