animals | Eye Sights

Just a simple walk is what I took this morning with our two young dogs. For an August day in Tucson, it was pleasantly decent. Not lovely enough to include a breeze, but in the shade, a temperature that gave you reprieve.

And that’s where it happened. The dogs sat down for a breather and an incoming adult bird arrived. I heard its wings flutter past me, before it landed on a mid-height branch, making itself at home. A mourning dove. It settled its wings, and balanced itself at a forty-five-degree angle to me. It seemed self-assured, as though it liked its location. In a minute, it began to twitch its tail. One of the dogs looked up, but didn’t bark. If the other dog noticed, it didn’t bark either. They seemed to knew we were the guests under the sheltering branches and the bird’s right to be there trumped ours.

I spoke in a low cooing voice. “Hello, lady bird. You’re a pretty little dove. Yes, you are. How are you this morning?’

I got quiet and watched her.

More fluttering of her back tail. She remained sideways, not flinching. Still unafraid. She was beautiful, a soft brown with a black mark on her cheek, sleek feathers, underpinnings of white.

I stared. I was puzzled. She wasn’t but five feet away and she wasn’t afraid. My high pitched voice didn’t bother her, and neither did the dogs.

My head pulled back. This unfearful dove felt like a gift from God. All week I’d struggled being able to trust Him, for the well-being of my sister in the hospital with an undiagnosed spiking blood pressure condition.

Lord, did You send this bird? What are You saying?

I studied the dove. She’d flown to a safe place on the branch not far above me where I could see her beauty and feel her close by. She had no fear; she was safe. Safety. God had Karen in a safe place. I didn’t have to be afraid.

And Peace. I could be at peace.

No, we still don’t know why Karen has rogue blood pressure increases, enough to give her chest pain and two mild heart attacks. But she’s safe in the hospital and being tested for a diagnosis. The doctors don’t yet have the answer, but our Omniscient Father does.

He’s got Karen. I can be at peace. I can pray. And I can I thank the Lord for how He’s going to help.

In case you think this far-fetched, remember God uses nature throughout the Bible to display his glory or convey a message. An example is Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River.

“[Jesus] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ~”Matthew 3:16

Dear Omniscient Father, Please give us the wisdom we need and the gift of peace as we wait for the answer, amen.

One of my childhood fantasies was to be a mermaid. Ha! Of course I had no idea what this would entail, (or should I say, entale)—but with life under water, you can choose whatever role you wish it to be. I was fascinated with the notion of mermaids. I put myself into the role and felt magically transformed into a romantic and attractive creature, swishing my long fantail to get me where I needed to go. Fantasy is so great, you become whoever you want to be. There I was without my eyeglasses, no ugly skin disorder, no disabilities at all. Something transitory overcame me, and I was a swimming beauty, admired by all, lovely beyond compare, a princess of the sea. If something went wrong, all I had to do was swim away and escape to wherever it is mermaids go for refuge. Ha.
Sometimes, while swimming at our summer cottage lake, or later on, our swimming pool in Tucson, I would pretend to be a mermaid, and swim with my legs together. We would play games, such as play Mermaid Tag and “It” and the players could only swim with their legs together in the game. It was pretty fun.
When the movie The Little Mermaid came out, I thought this was one of the Disney’s best except for the ugly, dark witch. Of course every story has to have a villain, but this one seemed excessively wicked. The story line however, was most clever and I still very much like this movie, one of my favorites– for Ariel (whom we named a third cat we got since she felt so out of place), and her friends, the good godmother, and of course her dashing prince who loved her for who she was.
All kinds of things happen to us in life. Evil rears its ugly head at some point or another, sometimes more often than we would like. But there is a way of escape in the real world. God gives us a Knight in shining armor, Christ Jesus. In His comforting and strong arms, we can know rescue and delight.