A Wonder By the Maple Tree
Home is always a welcome sight when Ray and I return. After we round the last curve near our house, we enjoy seeing the big maple tree just past the driveway.
I searched through several photos to show you how the scene looks in winter. Here is a photo coming from the opposite direction.
The best photo I could find to illustrate my story for today was this one of the maple tree in autumn.
On the Sunday evening of February 13, Ray and I drove home after visiting friends. When we were almost to the driveway, we saw a very large bird with a wingspan of about four feet flying four or five feet off the ground near the edge of our front yard. The bird was near the maple tree. In its talons was a good-sized animal. The bird and Ray and I must have seen each other at about the same time because it dropped its prey and alighted on the ground at the shoulder of the road. It stood there looking at us. Ray and I were filled with wonder as we gazed out the windshield, face-to-face with a large owl. My best guess is that it was a barred owl. We sat motionless in our car and the owl stood motionless where the grass and the pavement come together. Then it flew—I’m sure quite reluctantly—across the road, leaving its well-earned supper.
Ray pulled over to see the animal the owl left behind and found that it was a rabbit. He drove down the road and turned around so I could get a close-up view of the rabbit, too. Of course, we felt sorry for the poor rabbit, but we marveled at the opportunity to see this fascinating scene, which would have made great footage for a nature documentary.
As I sat eating breakfast yesterday morning, I noticed a busy squirrel on a nearby tree trunk. I remembered our close encounter with the owl many times last week, and the squirrel reminded me of it again. I thought about how many times scenes like that are repeated in our world without our ever being aware of them.
God is working wonders all over the world at every hour of the day and night.
Women are giving birth to brand new boys and girls. The shining sun and falling rain are making crops grow. Zebras are munching on grass, leaves, and bark in the grasslands and savannah woodlands of East and Southern Africa. Snow leopards are pouncing on blue sheep and ibex in the Himalayas. Millions of krill are flowing into the mouths of blue whales. Owls are using their sharp eyes and keen hearing to find insects, small animals, or fish.
God isn’t only working wonders in the world He created. He is working wonders in our families and in us. What a mighty God we serve!
By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness,
God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth
and the farthest sea;
Who establishes the mountains by His strength,
Who is encircled with might;
Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the turmoil of the nations.
They who dwell at the ends of the earth
stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the sunrise and the sunset shout for joy.
Psalm 65:5-8
