Of Bears and Penguins

The old gray dog is crunched up in his chair, his head pillowed by a little red stuffed toy. His nose is twitching like he's smelling a delicate dream smell, his ears moving to delicate dream sounds.

Somehow this is comforting to me in ways that I can't explain. God gave us good companions when He gave us dogs.

As I walked out the door this morning to head to the library, I saw a brilliant blue jay, and I immediately thought what a gift of God that was.

You might rightly assume that I've not been praying to see a beautiful blue jay. I've been praying for many other things, but definitely not that.

Still, the jay was a gift as he bobbed in and out of his tree, and in my spirit rested the words, I have not forgotten you.

And so I wait on the Lord.

At some earlier point in my life, I might have been petulant. Stomped my foot. Rejected the gift. And those reactions did cross my mind.

I've been praying for God to restore my soul, to abandon me not, to grant abiding peace, to heal that which is broken.

And I got a blue jay...? A blue jay and the words, "I have not forgotten you."

It did cross my mind to wail to the heavens, to yell "A blue jay? What is that? That's not what I've asked for."

Fortunately the moment quickly passed. It struck me how often we presume to know best what we need, and precisely when we need it. When all the while God calls to our souls, which bear his thumbprint,

"Be still and know."

For someone who's been reading the Bible for a long time - nearly 20 years now, it seems a bit silly that the thought is just now beginning to dawn on me that God's time is not our time.

Abraham and Sarah waited, and longed and hoped and trusted for decades.

Some people think it took a century for Noah to build the ark.

David did not receive his crown the instant Samuel annointed him.

It took Jesus 33 years to get to the cross.

Haste in many circumstances is not apparently how God works.

That's not to say He can't move swiftly and powerfully.

I remember that when I was a teacher, I would wonder sometimes at the now-focus of my kids. When we talked about setting goals and achieving them, we also had to talk about the fact that it would take time. In August, the end of the school year seemed unimagineable to my kids.

It was hard to get my kids to think past the immediate. I recognized then as I do now that this is part of the human condition.

But God consistently calls us to forebear, and to take a longer view than the immediate.

So the Jay this morning was a gift, from my creator who delights in His creation. It was a good gift in its simplicity, beauty and joy. And in the message that came with it, "I have not forgotten you."

I wait upon the Lord, and I trust His timing. May He grant me the patience to continue in that path.