Feet

(Art: "Golden Rule" Mosaic by Jaro Nemcokat the UN Headquarters)

Here lately I have been doing a lot of imagining about the feet of Jesus. No really, it is true. I do not imagine Jesus really wearing shoes, not what we would consider shoe. He didn't own suped up tennies with a swoosh on them. There was no need for him to run. Notice that he is never in a hurry. He took his time with people: really listening, engaging them where they were, caring for their needs. He didn't rush conversations. He wasn't satisfied with small talk. Where he went, with whom he spoke he was really present. His "soul" was wherever his feet were. He wasn't half-paying-attention when people were talking to him. He wasn't planning his response.

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news ,who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'your God reigns.'"

This passage from Isaiah 52 is often quoted as referring to Jesus. Yet, what if it also referring to you and me....those who take up apprenticeship to Jesus. What if our feet are beautiful when we do as he did? What kind of presence do we have? What kind of tidings are we bringing?

It is my conviction that when we stand with those who suffer, we carry with us the same power Jesus had. He said that under that kind of anointing, with His sort of power all things were possible. "Release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free." (Luke 4:18) I may not be able to single handidly reverse the oppressive structures of racism or sexism. Yet, I can do my part. Praise God that I can do something. I can partner with Jesus as I go everywhere. I can discover my own hands and feet and voice and be very present with those who suffer the most in our world. "Those" people, by the way, are the ones with which Jesus most generally hung. We really are His hands and feet.

Got a billboard for the Blue Jay?

I love bird watching nowadays. Having favorite past times such as hiking, camping, and gardening, it actually surprises me that birds(until now)have not caught my attention. Now I love them!! Birds instantly make me happy. I enjoy watching them fly to the feeder, dance around and play with one another, scavenge for food. At any given time we may have up to 20 birds on our deck. (I have actually learned their names! thanks to my friend Tina and this great book "National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America.")Downy woodpeckers, titmice, cardinals, blue jays, carolina chicadees, juncos, american goldfinch, purple finch and red-bellied woodpeckers.

Birds and Blooms magazines were given to me by my friend Tina and I was so pleased with them I could not wait to look through them and read them. This photo was taken from their web site. The latest issue features David Shaw from Fairbanks, Alaska answering the question "why feed birds?" and his answer matches mine with a special twist I will tell you about after I quote him. "Conservationist are constantly trying to put the importance of wildlife, wilderness and nature into economic terms. As though the dollar value of a flock of shorebirds or the birds at my feeder is all that matters. This, I now realize, is utter nonsense. What makes birds valuable, what makes them worthy of our protection, is their inherent beauty. It is their beauty that enriches our lives, not their economic value. And this enrichment is priceless. In this age, the noise of televisions, computers, radios, the Internet and automobiles constantly surround us. Buried in this cacophony of multimedia, we are far removed from the natural world. Yet, part of me yearns for that connection."

Yes, this is the very reason that I have fallen in love with birds. Their beauty and play reminds me that life is beautiful. Beyond that, God created each of them and knows not just their generic name, but all of their individual names. For instance, we first started noticing that we had a blue jay and we loved to watch him. We thought that he was the only blue jay in our backyard until we had two, then three, and soon four on the railing and bird feeder. I was thinking about giving him a name when I thought "he" was the only one...maybe "BOB" the blue jay, or "Bartholomew" the blue jay. Notice the picture, if you cannot watch blue jays in person, that blue jays have a stripe around their necks and it seems to me that it would be a perfect little natural place to hang a name badge or billboard like they say around their necks so that we would know each of them by name. Now that we can count up to four, we figure that we really have a whole mess....but we will never know each of them by name. We will never know their individual names or the small differences between each one of them.

However, God does know them!!! And knowing that makes me so enormously pleased because I know and trust the words of Jesus as never before. I know that God cares for me, knows me, and is always wanting what is good for me. "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow or reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they...Therefore do not worry, saying 'what will we eat?' or 'what will we drink?' or 'what will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father know that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
(Matthew 6:26, 31-33)

Bird watching is a wonderful antidote to worry. Peaceful enjoyment!