Birdwatching with Merlin and the Spirit
Them: “Tell me your old without telling me your old.”
Me: “I’m a birdwatcher.”
There, I’ve said it. I’m officially old. Less than a year from turning forty, I’ve taken up the hobby of birdwatching in my backyard, neighborhood, and while hiking the Hill Country. I’ve long resisted for all the stereotypes associated with the hobby even though I come from three generations of birdwatchers who find great joy and delight in it and have gifted me everything from hummingbird feeders to bird field guides.
But then my four-year-old daughter came home from a trip to Grandma’s house and told me about a magic app that listens to your surroundings and identifies the songs and calls of the birds right in front of you. Because I wanted to humor her (and needed a few minutes to myself), I downloaded it. No one was more surprised than me, when I got hooked on Merlin Bird ID and started planning walks with my daughter to identity more birds.
Why the sudden change? Because the app helped to identify what I was missing. It made visible the invisible and knowable what was previously unknown to me. Just the practice of searching for birds was cultivating curiosity, wonder, and expectancy within me.
And you know what? Because I expected to see birds and now knew how to identify them, I began to truly see them. And they were everywhere!
What started as noticing feathers and songs became training my soul to notice God’s whispers. Witnessing the intricacies of God’s creation led to wonder and worship. But it also reminded me that if I can be blind to physical things, how much more so to spiritual things? How often have I missed God’s voice or direction or loving presence because I failed to attune to his “gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12)?
I wonder if the same if true for you. If you feel like God is absent, is it because you don’t know what you’re looking at or listening for or attending to? Or perhaps God’s love is so commonplace and ordinary in your life, that you’ve stopped truly beholding the magnitude of it? Might you be overlooking God and his good gifts simply because your attention is diverted elsewhere? Even though it’s right in front of you, what aspect of our self-revealing God might you be missing simply because you’ve stopped looking?
While we don’t have the convenience of Merlin to highlight God and his fingerprints at work in the world, we are not left without a Helper. Jesus promised, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit—God with us—literally identifies, teaches, points us to, and reminds us of the things of God. He also makes real to us the love of the Father through his person, power, and presence.
Isn’t that great news? You and I aren’t called to attune to the things of God in our own power. Instead, we’re invited to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and in so doing, “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).
Consider pausing each day to “name” three signs of God’s presence or walk outside with the intention of listening for God in the ordinary. Begin a gratitude journal or take a photo each day of something that prompts you to worship. Practice the daily examen and reflect upon that which drew you further into God’s love.
Whether you’re birdwatching, walking your dog, taking a photo of a friend at sunset, weeding your garden, or going to the mailbox, may you have the occasion to step outside and truly see that “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps. 19:1).
Reflection Questions
1. What is bringing your unexpected joy?
2. When and where has God revealed himself when you least expected?
3. How might God be inviting you to a greater awareness of his presence this week?