All Creatures Great and Small

"My profession is always to be alert to find God in nature,

to know God's lurking places to attend to all the oratorios

and the operas in nature."

~ Henry David Thoreau

It was early one fine summer morning. Rick and I were sitting on the patio sipping our first cup of coffee, enjoying the show of birds as they swooped in for a share of their favourite breakfast cereal, when one of our resident tree swallows flew by and perched on Rick's white garden hat which was on his head at the time. Apparently tree swallows like white feathers with which to build their nests, so maybe Mr. Swallow thought Rick's hat was a big feather. Alas, we didn't have the camera handy, but what a treat to see him right there within arm's reach. How pretty his iridescent feathers as they glimmered in the sunlight.

Most of the birds who come to feed in our garden are getting used to us sitting nearby. Red-winged blackbirds will swoop in with a hearty chereep. And, as they fill their beaks to feed their hungry brood, they coyly peek around the side of the feeder as if to ensure we're not sneaking up on them.

Which reminds me, one morning last week I found a large bumblebee lumbering along on my living room floor. Although it had found its way in through the open back door, it obviously couldn't find its way out. It lay there as if stunned. Scooping it up with a tumbler glass and piece of paper, I took it out into the garden, hoping it would recover. The tiny creature crawled off the paper onto my finger, his little body heaving as if to catch its breath. He sat a moment, I said a little prayer for him in case he was injured, and then suddenly he spread his tiny wings and was gone.

I love these encounters with nature's tiny creatures -- they are such an amazing and beautiful part of our world. Don't let their size fool you ... sometimes the best pleasures come in tiny packages.

So many wild places around us are being razed to the ground for 'development'..... and rather than going into a lament or a rant about it (which we are prone), we try to create a little haven in our corner of the world for a few of these, God's smallest creatures.

Wishing you glimpses of heaven in unexpected places,
Brenda