The Cormorant

After three feet of snow and several inches of drenching rain, my mind is wandering to an August vacation at the beach.  I'm thinking about sunshine and our colorful beach umbrella with blue bubbles on it.  And, of course, I'm picturing our pink-hippo-in-a-polka-dot bikini beach blanket.  I'm imaging squealing children toddling across the sand with saggy diapers, sun hats, red plastic pails and blue shovels.  You get the picture!  I'm ready...

Lost in my vacation thoughts today, I remembered a scene I witnessed one afternoon a few years ago on the beach.  I looked up from my daily crossword puzzle to see a huddle of people down on the far end of the sand.  They were gathered in a circle with their heads down.  A young teenage boy was running up to the Snack Shack as people shouted, "Try to locate a park ranger."

Ever curious, I decided to walk down the beach and see what all the hub-bub was about.  When I got down to the site of the activity, I saw a man trying to catch a shiny black cormorant who had an injured wing.  The man had pure intentions toward the bird but the bird read the good Samaritan as a threat.  The bird was thrashing about and pecking at his benefactor.  The black mass of feathers did everything it could to get away from the man.  Inside my mind I kept saying, "Stop! Stop!  The man's just trying to help you, not harm you.  You are going to injure yourself worse if you don't stop."

"Oh Lord," I prayed, "have I had been the cormorant?" "Have I pecked and squawked and thrashed and distrusted trying to get away from you when you were working on my behalf to help and heal me?  I'm sure I have and I'm sorry." 

The man on the beach was finally able to catch the cormorant when the exhausted bird gave up it's struggle.  The man gently wrapped the bird in a beach towel and with single focus he ran the cormorant toward the beach entrance where he passed it off to the ranger who took it to the conservation center so it could rest and have it's injuries be treated.

God's Word says, "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) When I come to the end of myself--my arguments, my it's-not-fairs, my don't-touch-mes--then God can step in and heal, make me whole and allow me to rest.  It's all about trusting the love of the God who said,  ^"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)