Flicker we hardly knew thee, 2007

I am a scavenger.  My boys are scavengers.  We have this inability to walk by "interesting" things on the ground without picking them up to determine whether or not we should bring the item home.  My youngest son is an expert at finding money on the floor at Target (mostly pennies).  My older son is an expert at finding "another man's treasure," and I seem to be an expert at finding birds...dead ones.

To date, I have brought home a wood pecker, an unidentified avion (who spent many months in the freezer next to the ice cream waiting to be identified), and last week, I brought home a flicker.  There are so many amazing feathers on this one bird.  Breast feathers with spots, back feathers with diamond bars, yellow and black tail feathers and its head feathers are amazing, super-fine taupe feathers with a blaze of bright red.

There are a number of pasages in the scripture that speak to us being "under the shelter of His wings."  I know that it is a picture of protection, but after looking closely at the wings of God's creation I am also moved by the beauty of the idea.

From Psalm 91

 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
         And from the perilous pestilence.
 He shall cover you with His feathers,
         And under His wings you shall take refuge;
         His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
         Nor of the arrow that flies by day,