Think about that......

The other day I sat very quietly and watched a robin very determinedly rip off a small chunk of straw or string from a large bunch of it.  She stood looking around her, shaking her head like a dog shakes a rag - behavior I had never been privileged to witness in a robin. She strutted for a couple of minutes, looked both ways as if she was checking to make sure the airways were clear for take-off, flapped her wings quickly, and flew away.  No doubt she was building a nest for her offspring - the new future of her species that she knew would arrive shortly after the nest was constructed.

Watching this made me thing about simple things.  What happens in the mind of a bird that helps it to know when the time is just right to come north for the summer and find little snips of string, strands of straw, and feathers to soften the nest with?  How does a rose know just when to put forth the first leaf, or a flower that first shoot when spring arrives?  How does a frog know when it's time to lay eggs that will become tadpoles?  Is there an instinct that almost silently proclaims, "It's time"?  Or is it merely the weather?  Is there something in the heart of a man or woman who has had cabin fever throughout the entire winter that says, "The ground is thawed, go tend your garden?"  And what do these things mean when they happen?

I've heard it said that a man can live for 40 days without food, 3 days without water, but only 12 seconds without hope.  If that is so, is spring a hope that is so aptly dangled in front of us when the grass blades are turning green, the cicadas are singing and the crickets chirping?  Is that hope offered in the form of fresh, fragrant air to fill our lungs, and vegetables that grow in a garden well-tended?  Is hope offered when we watch the birds' nests being built, and knowing that their kind will go on visiting our feeders and watching for seeds in our flowers to ripen for their take?  I, for one, adore watching the babies when they arrive...be it bird, mouse, mole, chicken, turkey, or a little human boy or girl baby.....whatever the species, they all represent hope to me; hope that life goes on in a special way every spring; hope that says we all have a chance for happiness and a life that goes far beyond mere existence.  I pause to wonder how in the world a man can say in his heart that there is no God when He offers hope to us in so many of the things that we witness in our everyday world.  The Bible is true without a doubt when it says that a fool says in his heart there is no God.

Many are the things we can learn if we, in our busy, have-to-rush-to-get-things-done world, will take the time to quietly just watch the robin build her nest.