Bewick’s Wren

Recently I took a side trip into a field of millet approaching harvest. I thought the amber grain, although not as iconic as wheat, was very picturesque.

While walking between fields, I noticed birds frequently popped up. Most of the birds were some form of sparrow. I failed at getting any pictures of the sparrows, but I did get one picture tolerably focused.

Notice this bird has its tail cocked upright. This is the distinctive posture of a wren. Combine this with the fact it has a white eye line, and doesn’t have a black back with white stripes, and you have positive identification of a Bewick’s wren.

Like other wrens, it has a wonderful call. When the bird is growing up it learns to imitate the calls it hears, not from its father, but from the community of other Bewick’s wrens around it. Apparently the young birds have something in common with young men. Namely that it is easier to learn some things from people who are not too close to you.

I see this principle at work all the time in my church. I myself or one of the other men in the church can say things to a young adult or teenager which they would never accept from their parents. I have even had kids thank me for being straight up honest with them. I am frequently humored by this response, knowing they would have responded spitefully to their parents, who are far more invested in them.

1 Timothy 5:1-2 says “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and with all propriety, the younger women as sisters.” A part of this verse is to make yourself available to encourage and instruct younger Christians as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Unfortunately, in today’s world we have a suspicious nature toward experience teaching and assisting youth. That is a part of how we have restructured our society. We have come to the conclusion that people with bad intentions are everywhere. We have made good people afraid to do good, for fear of false accusations.

But beneath all the clamor, there are still young people who will hear the advice of an older person. Without that advice the world and its false values get free run. Be careful that you behave toward everyone with all propriety, but don’t hold back your advice. If you refuse to do the things you can do, you are cooperating with the decline of society.

Advertisement

Screech-Owl

Today I found out that my brother’s family has an owl living around their house. This is the sort of news that gets a birder’s attention.

I saw a picture posted online. It was obviously a small owl, but the picture did not provide for accurate scale. It had bright yellow eyes and small ear tufts. They live slightly northwest of Phoenix, Arizona.

Given only this amount of information can the bird be positively identified?

There are eight large owls, and eleven small owls. This was obviously one of the small ones.

Of the small owls there are four which have ear tufts.

Of the small owls with ear tufts there are two that would regularly occur in that range.

Of the small owls, with ear tufts, in that range, only the western screech-owl has the yellow eyes. So it seems likely the bird is a western screech-owl—likely but not absolutely certain.

The detail that is most likely to confuse the results is range. It is common for birds to be seen outside of their normal range. Birders frequently remind each other that the birds don’t read the field guides or honor their defined ranges.

As it happens there is another owl, the whiskered screech-owl, that looks extremely similar to the western screech-owl. The whiskered is usually further south, but it is entirely possible for a bird to have wandered outside of the normal range.

Christians could benefit from a discussion of range as well. One of the identifying marks of a believer is their moral stand. This pattern of living means there are certain places a believer is unlikely to go.

Many years ago I was in a church that had a church covenant pasted in the front of their hymnals. It said, among other things, that the members of the church would not consume alcohol, and would not go into businesses that offer alcohol. I liked it. But I didn’t find it easy to follow back then.

Furthermore in today’s world it would be impractical to follow such a guideline. Very few restaurants do not serve alcohol. Of course it would be possible to simply stop eating out at the places that do. However, every grocery store sells alcohol and therefore it would be impossible to buy food to prepare at home. So a strict adherence to the guideline would mean eating out at every meal, and predominantly from fast food places.

This point serves to illustrate how hard it is to stay within your range. But I also know that many, if not most, Christians today do not agree with the guideline and therefore will not attempt to follow it. While we could have a lengthy discussion of whether it is right or wrong, what is and is not lawful or allowable for believers, that is not my point at the moment.

What I want you to see for now is a simpler point. Christians are less identifiable in today’s world because they have taken away one of the field marks. Many people bemoan the loss of witness in today’s world, but they don’t seem to make the connection to our behavior. In years gone by believers were better at being different than the world around them, and this inherently attracted people who wanted to improve their life. Today Christians seem more interested in standing up for their rights than growing the kingdom, and the resulting patterns of behavior are not as attractive to the lost as past patterns were.

Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you. 2 Corinthians 6:17 (HCSB)

White-Faced Ibis

I have been aware for several years that white-faced ibis live in our area, but had not been able to catch a picture of them. Recently a couple of church members told me the fields around them would occasionally be crowded with birds. Since I have been out of bird pictures to use on my blog or in the newsletter, I asked if they could call me next time it happened.

When I got there the fields were full of ibis such as this one. This is a white-faced ibis, but that white face only occurs on mature, breeding males. It is not breeding season and most of the birds were immature. So none of the pictures I got will include that feature. They are uniformly dark birds but when in the light they reflect in colors from copper to chestnut to metallic green. They are classified as wading birds but the downward curved bill is only carried by a few waders. Their plump shape, and relatively short legs also make for an unusual sighting. The bird is something of a conundrum.

Do people ever look at you in a similar way? Are we, as Christians, a conundrum to the world and community around us? If so, it is a situation that should not surprise us. It might even be a situation we strive to embrace.

When we commit ourselves to Christ we are promising to do our best to become like Him. It is God’s work in us that brings about this transformation, but is our part of the bargain to cooperate with the process. So just as the world did not understand Jesus it will also fail to understand those who are simply trying to be Christ-like.

Jesus made it clear that the world would not understand us. In fact, He took it further by saying the world would hate us for our ways. But this awkwardness, this conflict—if it goes that far—is compensated by a simple fact. We were not made for this world, nor is our citizenship here.

2 Corinthians 5:20 (HCSB) Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

So don’t be surprised by, or worried about, how your faith makes you awkward in the world. Instead be worried if it doesn’t.

Baby Gambel’s Quail

Here are a couple of baby Gambel’s quail. In this picture the chicks are looking up at the bush because they are about to trim off some of the new leaves for a snack. As they get older they will be a little less choosy, but at this age, they are consuming foods suitable for their stage of growth. When they become adults they will eat a lot tougher foods, but at this age they only go for the easy stuff.

Spiritually we go through growing up transitions too. Last week I addressed this growth process from the perspective of the church, specifically the church’s responsibility to work with people of all maturity levels. But the immature Christian also has a responsibility, which is they must strive towards maturity.

Like anything else seeking to grow, what believers consume makes a major difference. The believer who is frequently exposed to Scripture is going to be healthier than the one who is only spiritually fed by an occasional sermon. A daily Bible reading, home Bible study, Sunday school class and a Bible memory plan will help you become spiritually strong. But the believer who consumes more video games, popular music or television than Scripture may never really understand what Spiritual maturity is.

“Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature —for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.” Hebrews 5:13-14 (HCSB)

Young American Coots

We normally think of baby birds as cute. But these young birds really don’t strike me as cute. Instead they seem kind of gangly, awkward, and maybe even clumsy. You guessed it! These are not babies, they are adolescents. While babies of any animal will evoke oohs and aahs, teenagers tend to evoke other emotions. I am sure you knew this about humans already, but this picture should help you to see it’s also true of many birds, such as these American coots.

Have you ever stopped to think about why? Although studying the stage of life may not make living with a teenager any more tolerable, it is possible to understand it. The reason for the awkwardness can be quickly summed up, they are the way they are because they are still growing up. Their size might well lead you to believe they are grown, but their experience level may not have taught them how to walk without tripping over their own feet yet.

I bring this up in this setting, because I think we would do better in many churches if we thought of Christians in more than two levels of growth. How is it that we expect believers either to be new believers, also called baby Christians or mature believers? What happens to all the awkward ages in between where they learn to walk and talk like a Jesus follower.

Given our habit of forgetting the growth process of a believer, I am not surprised so many Christians pretend to be more mature than they are. They have been a part of the family of God for too long to still be in diapers, and the only other choice they see is to be a person who has it all together. They know they really are not that person, but they don’t want to advertise their immaturity around the congregation, so they join the ranks of pretenders.

The situation is so serious that many Christians have no idea what a mature believer really looks like. The ranks are occupied by the pretenders. When this is the only example available, the higher mark of Christ-likeness is lost.

The only way to get beyond this malaise of mediocrity that has infested the ranks of Christendom is to undergo a God-guided growth process. Christ will point out sin in your life, and you go through the difficult work of dealing with it. A genuine Christ follower will be willing to work on themselves, will develop a record of successful character developments and will have their eyes on Jesus as their guide.

Ephesians 4:11-14 (HCSB) has a passage discussing what it looks like when we fully embrace this challenge in the church and its work. “And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.”

House Sparrow

This is a house sparrow. 175 years ago this bird did not exist in the United States. In 1851 a group was imported from Europe by people who missed seeing the bird after moving to the Americas. By 1900 it had spread to the Rockies. Today, this bird has since become one of the most widespread bird on earth—it might even be the most widespread bird. It has covered all of North America, half of South America as well as the original range in Europe and Asia.

These birds are called house sparrows, because they love to build their nests in man-made structures. If you hear chirping in your attic; it’s probably these guys. If you see a bird darting in and out of your roof tiles; it’s probably these guys. If you discover a mob of birds sheltering in a shed; well, you know.

Birders look at house sparrows as junk birds. That is the term used for birds you see and list but don’t necessarily want to see as often as you do. Since they are not natural to our area, and they can displace normal birds. Since they are so prolific they compete for resources native species need. Some people are so adamantly opposed to the species that they put specialized food in their feeders to dissuade house sparrows.

I wonder if the original importers new what it was they were starting. It seems obvious their intent was for the birds to survive, but were they really expecting them to thrive as much as they have?

Believers might want to take a lesson from the house sparrow when they willingly introduce some types of sin into their lives. Like the sparrow, sin can spread and multiply in ways we do not expect. In some cases the sin not only takes on surprising proportion in your life, but also carinfects future generations after. Unfortunately we seldom think about these possibilities while making decisions. Hebrews 12 refers to sin as being able to easily entangle us. Never is this truer than when it has our open cooperation.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. Hebrews 12:1a (NLT)

Gambel’s Quail

This is a male Gambel’s quail. Specifically it is the lookout. A covey of quail will often post a sentry. One of the birds will be posted on top of a shrub or brush pile so that it can see danger coming and warn the others.

When I saw this bird perching on top of the scrub, I took several pictures of it, and then decided I wanted to find the covey. After all it is the time of year they have chicks with them, and a line of babies would make a great picture.

I stepped out of the car without spooking the bird, then I used my camera to scan every likely hiding place. I continued scanning until I decided I could give up. It would be just as easy to walk towards the sentry. It would call out an alarm, and then join the others for a mad dash out of harm’s way.

My plan worked to a point—a point followed by failure. The reason my plan did not succeed was because I had made a faulty assumption. The vast majority of quail are in coveys, but there are always a few unpaired birds.

This particular bird when it did fly down and take off running, crossed a golf course where I could see with great certainty that it was alone. There would be no pictures of chicks, because there were no chicks. It was a false assumption.

Believers also commonly make false assumptions. We tend to think the people around us are already Christians. But some of them are not. The last thing we want is to have people we thought we would see in heaven never show up. The bad part will be realizing we had missed many chances to talk to them about it.

“Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.” Colossians 4:6 (HCSB)

Brewer’s Blackbird

 

This intimidating stare belongs to a Brewer’s blackbird. The bird is typical blackbird size and this picture highlights one of the typical field marks for the Brewer’s, the bright yellow eye. Another field mark is the green and purple sheen of the feathers. While the sheen is visible in this picture, it is best seen in person.

Sheen is the way the sunlight reflects off of a bird. Feathers are like prisms which can reflect back a specific color of light. In this case the reflected light is purplish in some parts of the bird, and greenish in other places.

Your daily walk with Christ should also function a bit like a prism. When a person walks in the light of God’s Word, that light not only shines into them changing and shaping them, but also reflects out of them visible by the world around them. This light might be visible as a positive attitude or an internal joy. It might be visible as a humility and a life pattern of placing others ahead of yourself. Or maybe it comes across as courage, allowing you to always do what is right no matter what the cost.

Can you see some manner in which God’s Word has done a transformational work in you, which is visible to the world around you? In John 3:21 (HCSB), Jesus says, “But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Satyr Comma

Normally on Tuesdays I would put up a picture of a bird and a devotion based on the characteristics of that bird. Unfortunately I am running out of bird pictures, therefore I have given you something different today. The two pictures above are a butterfly. They are the same butterfly.

This is a comma, probably a satyr comma. I am still relatively inexperienced at identifying butterflies so I am not confident in the exact species, but it is undoubtedly a comma. These butterflies have the ability to look like a leaf when their wings are closed. And they keep their wings closed almost all the time.

But the top of the wing, the view you get when they open their wing is a bright, almost metallic orange. It is a spectacular sight to come across a comma with its wings open, but it is their habit to leave their wings closed. They do this for safety, since when their wings are closed they can be very hard to pick out among the detritus on the forest floor. By being hard to see they are highly unlikely to be eaten.

The differences between the two views can be very dramatic when the bug flies. It will hold its wings open and glide, looking like an orange reflector floating through the trees. Or it will flap as it moves looking a bit like a flittering, blinking signal light. But in both cases when it lands the bright orange flips off and it seems to disappear.

Sometimes Christians can be like this. They will show themselves to the world in a bright attractive way, but their inconsistency in Christian living is like turning off the light. They can appear strong and exemplify the benefits of righteous choices, and the light is bright and attractive to a lost world searching for answers. Then they can tell an off color joke or let out a swear word and the light blinks off.

Perhaps more often than the light blinks off because they brushed up against immorality, the light blinks off because the Christian felt the need to keep their spirituality low key. Just like the butterfly fears being eaten, many Christians fear attracting the attention of those hostile to Christianity. The devil has convinced too many people it is impolite to talk about Jesus, and we will become subject to some horrible persecution if we live our beliefs out publicly.

We make a foundational mistake when we listen to this kind of propaganda. The mistake is listening to the wrong person. Satan may tell us to keep our light to ourselves, but Jesus tells us just the opposite.

Matthew 5:16 (HCSB) “In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Common Merganser

This is a common merganser. Mergansers are a type of diving duck. They are perhaps the most skilled fish catchers in the duck world. They are born with this skill and will do all their own hunting, from the point the chicks hatch through adulthood. When they are very young they will be catching aquatic insects and minnows. As adults they will move up to exclusively dining on small fish.

In order to be this skilled at fishing they have to have some specialized abilities and tools. Among them is being very strong swimmers underwater. But they also are specially equipped to hang on to the fish after they catch it. In this picture you cannot tell, but mergansers have sharp serrated edges to their bills. The bill looks a little bit like little saw blades, but each of those points are able to dig into the fish and keep it steady. This allows them to grip the slippery fish without any possibility of losing them.

Sometimes having a good solid grip is critical for people too. For Christians it is essential to have a grip on sound doctrine. A surprising number of people will spend their whole life drifting left and right in what they believe based upon who last influenced them. Of course, the goal should be to learn and accept the truth of Christ, not to adapt to the beliefs of those around you. Yet we such social creatures we are always likely to be influenced by others.

The solution the merganser uses might be useful here too. I believe people need anchor points. Certain key beliefs should be settled in their hearts and minds. These fundamental issues will serve as anchors to their belief system. The believer will recognize falsehood when it disagrees with one of these anchor points. Some of my anchor points include the inspiration of Scripture, the virgin birth, Jesus is eternally deity, Jesus took on humanity, the crucifixion and more. There are a lot of others. The more anchor points you have the steadier your faith will be.

2 Timothy 1:12 (HCSB) says But I am not ashamed, because I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.