Little yellow wings beat into a blur below the giant blue sky. The warbler darted across the the fenced-in backyard, capturing and consuming spring’s early insects. Occasionally, he landed on a weathered, gray fencepost or dry limb protruding from a bare tree. These moments of rest were infrequent at first, but as the young male began to sing, he’d roost longer. His song carried across the yard and joined in with the choir of other neighborhood warblers.
At the conclusion of each song, the young male puffed his chest out and waited for a female to show up. He noticed that he wasn’t alone in his conquest, but that’s why he had to make himself more noticeable than the others. He had to sing louder. He had to be brighter. His chest had to stick out further than any of the other males nearby if he was going to find a mate this season.
This led to preening and the occasional dive toward one of his compatriots- no, his rivals. Our protagonist felt he had something to contribute to the gene pool, so he had to compete with the others. He had been scoping out grass, weeds and other materials for building his nest for weeks. He couldn’t help but notice every good, empty place to construct his future home. It was just that season of life.
So far, no females. No reason to build a nest. No clutch of progeny to feed. The yellow warbler was free to fly around. Not that it was necessarily enjoyable to flap his wings and dart from bush to tree or fence. We all tend to take our most common means of travel for granted after a using it more than half our lives. Our subject loved to find himself caught in a draft, allowing himself to get carried away with leaves and plastic bags, letting the wind do half of the work.
One day when spring was finally warming up, the young warbler found the female he had been programmed to seek after. He was strutting and singing from his usual perch on the fence when she landed near him. Clearly, she was interested, but she took off after not more than a few short seconds. He pursued. Together, they shot across yards, darted over rooftops, and swept under tree branches. He couldn’t take his eyes off this potential mate as he flew all over the place, trying to keep up with her.
Being a bird, she couldn’t know much about playing hard to get, but frankly, it seemed as if she really didn’t want to be caught. Who wanted to get tied down to a nest with a demanding male and a clutch of eggs to deal with? He stayed hot on her tail though… until she saw her chance. The female pulled her wings in close to her body and dove, the male followed suit. They both turned up and turned right and hit an invisible wall, before dropping to the ground where they tried to breathe through broken necks and shattered beaks.
That’s where I found them. The smudges on the window were a giveaway that more birds had flown into glass that was impenetrable for such small animals. They landed in the garbage as soon as I was sure they were dead- didn’t want the dogs trying to eat them.
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
(Prov. 16:9)
I guess we can plan, but God has His own idea about how things should go…
All that hot pursuit for naught:(
What a parable!
Joy and peace,
~ Debra
All that hot pursuit, indeed! Just a reminder that God’s got things in control, we don’t!
Having dealt with birds hitting windows for years, I can relate to this post even better…just cuz something looks like a way through doesn’t mean it is.
Wow, such a tragic read so early in the morn! I’ve had these poor, stupid birds run into our big window a few times. My favorite was the male that kept attacking his reflection in the window, thinking it was another threatening male. He seriously beat his head into the window at least 50 times!
DUDE! Here I was rooting for the male bird, hoping that eventually they would be together, only to find out they both died. That’s not the stuff of good love stories…lol.
Great post though – and a great reminder that God is in control, no matter how we want things to go.
Dang, Jake. The pursuit of romance can make us oblivious to everything else, including the One who loves us the most.
You tell a great story.
I think any pursuit makes us blind. Or it can, when we’re not in balance with everything else, which is unfortunate because being out of balance can be so much fun!
Great writing, leave it to you to throw a non-fiction twist to the end! How many times have we chased something that would ultimately lead to a spiritual death and yet God gave us another chance, I’m thankful for the path that He caused to not lead to that invisible window. I’ve been there chasing my dreams and passions with reckless abandon never looking to see what God wanted in my life. I did crash and burn, but my wings and beak eventually healed.
I dread the days when I have to pick up a humming bird from my back yard after hitting our windows. I watch them hatch, grow up and learn to fly and fast. I admire their wild spirit, but that’s what happens moving at light speed…
I’m sometimes alright with chasing dreams with almost reckless abandon. I’d rather move in a wrong direction and have God correct me than have Him try to motivate me to get off my butt. That’s a personal thing though and doesn’t have much theological backing… just saying. I just feel like sometimes, God kills something right before it gets big, right before something we’ve all been waiting for to happen…. and I’m alright with it.
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