AS every new year appears I begin to make a new list of the different species of birds seen in Britain.
We had planned to go to Mistley, on the Stour estuary, to find a great northern diver, as well as the great variety of estuary birds that can be seen there.
As we were watching a flock of knot my mobile phone rang and a frien told me of a flock o
f waxwings at Copdock, near Ipswich.
So after exhausting the Mistley area of birds, and due to the numbing cold, we made our way to Copdock and the area around PC World in particular, where we were told these birds were plundering the berries in the car park. When we arrived there were two flocks perched in two trees.
We jumped out of the car and joined a few other people watching these plump, pink-grey birds from the north.
Moving to within 20 feet of them we were able to get spectacular views through our binoculars, as the birds flew from the tree to settle and swallow the berries whole.
A woman came up to me and asked: “Are you looking at anything nice?”
I pointed to the flock of waxwings only 20 feet from where she was standing. After five minutes the whole flock suddenly, and as one, flew away, just as a man came from his car, asking us where they were. He had missed them by just one second.
Now, this experience made me think that the word of God is just as this.
Firstly, when you hear it, do not hesitate, for you may miss it if you do not act upon it there and then. You could miss the beauty of it by only a second. Act urgently upon the information, for the beauty of salvation is there to be seen.
And like the woman who asked: “Is there anything lovely to be seen?”, yes, it is there, but you must look with the perceiving eye and you will then see the beauty before you. Embrace the urgency of the moment. And see with the perceiving eye, in companionship with the information that is given you. Then you will see the beauty of Jesus Christ that stands before you and knocks. Whereupon in that embrace you will find the wonder of God’s love for you, given freely but at a great price.
But not to take hold of the urgency of the moment will leave you standing with the man who was too late, dejected and disappointed in not responding more urgently to the moment, and who did not therefore grasp the joy that was evident upon the faces of those that had seen the beauty before them, before it took flight, and was gone.
