Devotional for December 15

We are lucky to have natural surroundings that remind us of God’s bounty and beauty. We name some of the avian cast of characters that frequent our bird feeders throughout the seasons. This summer we had a male mallard duck we named “Major” who decided our feeders were to be guarded from other mallards!  Sometimes he would bring a male friend, who we named “Minor,” and then later in the summer he brought a lady friend we called “The Maam!” Other times Minor would tag along with Major and The Maam, but Major never let Minor get too close to The Maam! Major would make sure other mallards kept away from his private stash of food! They have all left for the winter and hopefully we will see them again in the spring.

We had an ongoing battle with the squirrels eating the bird food from the feeder. We now have a feeder that is squirrel proof, but we do put food on the ground for the squirrels. The food on the ground is usually sufficient to please most of the squirrels who come by, but there was a cheeky red squirrel who discovered that he could climb part way up a tree; reach over and grab the hummingbird feeder; pull off the yellow flowers; and just “mainline” the sugar water!  Every day there were 1-4 of the 6 yellow flowers on the ground under the feeder and the sugar water was noticeably diminished. I finally had to move the hummingbird feeder which solved the problem for only a few weeks—squirrels are so clever. With the colder weather, the hummingbirds migrate South, so the feeder is stored for the winter. I hope the squirrel hid some nuts for the winter, but I do know that he was carrying a lot of extra weight due to his sugar-water diet!

A new cast of character will be arriving for the winter months. They will provide new stories; new ways to de-stress during these COVID times; and new ways to contemplate God’s world!

 

—Katherine Richardson