What's Up?

Illustration by Russ Rodman

Swoosh! A low-flying swallow circled above my head.

Startled, I ducked.

For one second it hovered up in the far corner under the shelter where I stood and opened its beak. One lucky chick made a quick grab. The parent bird soared out from under the shelter at the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area.

I looked up, up, up into that far corner, under the eaves of the wooden roof. I was curious about all the activity. I had to see what was happening.

I saw a neat row of little round balls of fluff. Five baby swallows, some with beaks wide open, eagerly waited for a parent’s return. They, too, were looking up, on tiptoe, downy chests lifted high in anticipation. They were never surprised by the flutter of wings. They watched for good gifts from above because barn swallows constantly feed their young from dawn till dusk. There’s an inexhaustible supply of mosquitoes breeding in the vast marshland beyond the Visitor Centre.

How could I not delight in the sight? Five tiny faces lifted in certain hope, waiting for a tasty ball of regurgitated insects. Five feathery heads, each no bigger than a quarter, quickly turning as one to follow the flight of their mother or father swooping low to give good gifts to their offspring.

I’ve often thought the world would be better without mosquitoes, but the swallows would heartily disagree.

Pressing concerns and dark thoughts had been weighing heavily on me. I, too, must look up, up, up because God so willingly, eagerly and constantly gives to his people from an inexhaustible supply. Am I ready to receive these gifts? Or am I looking down at the ground missing them?

The chick who would bury his little head into the dried mud of his nest would miss the prized gift supplied from above. He would shrivel and die.

As the young swallows have an appetite for insects and life beyond the nest, so I have an appetite for good food, life here on Earth and beyond. How many of God’s offerings have I denied myself because I was not ready to receive? Or, because I stubbornly clung to the lie that there were no good gifts, and, if there were any, they were for other people, not me?

Like the lucky chick who made a quick grab, I am ready!