Great-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus)

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  John 6:35

A featherless and goose-pimpled baby bird cranks its neck skyward.  Its beak wide open; bulbous black eyes remain fixed on a jagged puzzle piece of blue sky cut through a dense green canopy.  The hatchling’s life is tenuously held in a meager balance of minutes and seconds as its racing metabolism needs a constant flow of protein to support rapid growth and development.  For now, it’s frail and tiny pink body appears all-elbows as it waits within a cup of interweaving twigs and branches.

May your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.  Psalm 79:8b

The open beak serves several purposes.  It’s a cry for food and an easy target for delivery.  It also helps cool a nestling when too hot through panting and evaporative cooling.  Irreverent of heat and surroundings and in a desperate image of dependence, the nestling’s insatiable appetite hastens a weak and desperate cry for food.

       Listen to my cry for help O Lord, my king and my God, for to you I pray.  Psalm 5:2

For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you

Deuteronomy 4:31a

Sometimes things go wrong in the nest.   The nestling suddenly finds itself hopelessly separated from home, safety, and provider and moreover inappropriately named.  Perhaps it became too curious of the green temptations of the outside world.  Maybe a raucous sibling nudged their nest-mate a little too hard in eager anticipation of another delivery.  For whatever reason, the helpless bird finds itself at the mercy of cruel and withering elements and the eventual scourge of unforgiving predators. 

Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord; may your love and your truth always protect me.  Psalm 40:11

Rescued from the brink of extreme dehydration and malnourishment the thankless bird rests and recuperates.  Food and water are the day’s language of love; and it eats heartily and drinks deeply.  Life returns to its weak body and a once dim light in otherwise empty, black eyes begins to brighten.  Seemingly overnight, quill-like feathers emerge from its body looking like bundled dreadlocks.  In just days these sheathed feathers unfurl like flower petals.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  John 7:38

... Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  2 Peter 3:18a

From hatchling to nestling, and nestling to fledgling, time rolls over as the sun over the sea.  Now and again, the nearly fully grown bird inexplicably returns to its former caretaker.  Sometimes hungry but often simply seeking companionship, it is drawn back to that which was imprinted upon the shady recesses of its memory.   

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.  Psalm 104:4

With preened feathers its wings beat the air— not yet so gracefully fluttering over the sea and trees, coming and going like the breeze.  Someday, it may soar, and never return.  In the meantime, I watch it dance about from limb to limb and tree to tree.  Sometimes I imagine that it even watches for me.  Stranger still, that when it looks at me, does it wonder, “Am I like you?”  

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. 

2 Corinthians 5:17