This morning I was watching an Australian Minor bird on our back porch.  There is a pergola out back where I sit in the mornings, and he often flutters about jumping from rafter to rafter under its roof. He is always alone, and he is very intriguing to observe. While the magpies mooch around on the grass looking for a meal amongst the grass and dirt, this little fella is up in the rafters looking for a meal; only he seems to go for the insects caught in the spider webs under the roof.

When I first started watching him, I thought, how on earth does he do that? How does he get his beak inside the web and not get stuck? There are so many trees around here, which means many spider webs. And the pergola’s roof is a pitched roof, you know, a triangle shape. So to get right up to where the spiders have tucked away their meals by way of beetles, moths and other insects, he sometimes has to flutter in mid-air. Other times he’s getting in tight corners from rafters and getting his bright yellow beak right in the corners to extract the insects from all the sticky web.

I watched him today as he snatched a live insect from inside one of the webs. I marvelled at how clever and quick he was to do that. Then I saw him do a very clever thing. He landed on a rafter and wiped his yellow beak across one side of the rafter and then the other. He did this repeatedly, like a chef sharpening his knife on a strap. Of course, this little guy wasn’t sharpening his beak; he was cleaning it from the web.

As I watched this, I asked, “Lord, what can I see of You in this?” And the thought gradually came to me of the “treasures found inside of sticky situations”. Wow. How cool is that?

This little feathered friend isn’t afraid of sticky situations. He actually embraces them! He instinctively knows those very sticky situations are something of great worth. And he’s prepared to go in there, boots and all, and alone if he has to, to take that treasure on offer. But he has to go through some yucky stuff to get it. He’s not afraid or put off by the obstacles or the threat of getting his yellow beak glued shut! He goes in, grabs the meal, and wipes his beak from the sticky web. Done and dusted!

So, are we like this? Do we see a hidden treasure inside a sticky situation? Do we recognise that inside some of the difficulties we face (if not all of them),  there is something of great value to be found? It might be a lesson learned, a blessing, a reward more fantastic than we could have imagined, something the Lord wants for us. And if we recognise the opportunity inside that sticky situation, do we go in boots and all, with complete confidence and faith, or do we stand back and avoid it because of the risks?

Before this little guy’s visit this morning, I was meditating on Proverbs 3:5-6 which reads;

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

I can see what the Lord was saying to me in the correlation between the minor bird and the scripture. If I lean on my own understanding, I’ll avoid the sticky situation. But if I acknowledge Him in ALL my ways, He will make my path straight. He’ll cause my life to succeed according to His plan and purpose in my life and to His glory. I will find great joy and pleasure inside the situation. But I am to trust in Him with ALL my heart. I’m to face the sticky situations and trust that He’s got my back. I’m to ignore my own wisdom, which is no wisdom at all, and trust fully in Him. And as a result, I will find great reward in knowing Him more.

I also see this as a lesson about the call of God to all His people. Paul was faithful to the heavenly vision God gave Him when Jesus revealed Himself to him on the road to Damascus and revealed His oneness with His body, the church.

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”… Acts 9:4-5.

When Paul met Jesus after He had ascended to the Father, Paul was blinded, to be given true sight, and was forever changed. He never looked back. He went through many a sticky situation being faithful to the vision He’d been given. And we are all called to be the same, to have that one-eyed devotion to the Lord’s purpose. The Lord is our authentic food and is worth going in, and after, regardless of the obstacles and difficulties, we might have to endure to be faithful to Him and His purpose.

I was never very fussed about Australian Minor birds before. They’re noisy and dominate the bird life sometimes, and they’re not particularly attractive, in my opinion. They’re more like me than I imagined. I’m pretty fond of them after this encounter this morning.

Lord, teach us Your ways that we might walk with You and know You more. Give us the courage to trust You when we face a sticky situation, to believe Your promises that You will make our paths straight if we acknowledge You in all our ways and trust in You with all our hearts.