One of the things I like best about autumn and winter in the Midwest is watching the migratory birds that pass through on their way to Mexico and Central and South America. Here in St. Louis, near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers, clouds of birds fill the sky on any given day, moving, weaving and blending together like vast schools of fish. Even as scientists and naturalists study and better understand these migratory patterns and flyways, what they really can’t fully comprehend is this: What exactly pulls these birds to fly these long routes, which remain virtually the same over years and generations of birds? What is it within them that pulls them like a magnet to their winter homes and then back to their summer habitats? It’s a mystery, but that doesn’t make it any less real.
And what is it that over and over pulls us toward this thing — this power, this presence — that we call God? No matter how much we love this life and the world around us, this pull is a gentle yet powerful reminder that we are more than what makes us human. We are migratory, souls passing through our bodies on our way to somewhere else. Like birds flying the long trip for the first time, we cannot even imagine what it is we are traveling toward, but we continue to fly, drawn by a force we can only sense as being there, as being love. It’s a mystery, but that doesn’t make it any less real.
Ask yourself in silence: In these moments of silence, can I sense the pull of God? Am I willing to lean into this pull and follow?
2 comments On Today’s Word: Migratory
Love this analogy, Steve, something we can all relate to – something again, to think about. There is something about this time of year that infuses creative thinking too, for me it seems, so many messages God give us in Nature! As always, thanks for making me take the time to ponder. God bless,
Kathleen
It always makes me wonder how someone can deny God’s existence if they are at all attuned to nature’s cycles and mystery upon mystery. How can the birds find their way to a place they have never been before and then come back in the spring, perhaps to the very same exact place they had left in the fall? For all of our knowledge we still don’t know why and can only speculate on how it is done.