Billy The Bower Bird

He lives in our garden with his multiple girlfriends. He is a regent bower bird that looks black from a distance, but in the light is a shimmering deep purple. His female counterparts are speckled.  He built his bower of sticks arranged in an avenue up near the back fence. The bower is used to attract and court the females. When a female comes to watch he will pick up something blue in his beak and dance through his bower, hoping to impress the female. Knowing their habit of collecting blue things we used to keep blue tops off soy milk and other containers and throw them near his bower and watch as he re-arranged them. He became the wealthiest Bower bird in the district. This seemed to create jealousy, as other male bowers would come and steal his blue treasures. Rival bower birds would also come and knock down his bower by scattering his sticks on the ground. Then Billy did a curious thing. He shifted his whole operation down near the house, just behind our raised herb garden and under the kiwi fruit vine for cover. All the sticks, all the blue treasures came into the new location. Maybe he knew we were safe (we feed him apple from time to time) and he may have thought the rivals would not be so brave as to come so close to the house where humans’ dwell! It seemed to work.

As I watch the rivalry, I can’t help but remember what Paul said in Romans 8:19-23 “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.  But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)” NLT

Bower birds work for days making preparations that will be worthy of their brides. Jesus told us that He is preparing a place for His bride; the church. In His last address to the disciples, (just before he was arrested), in John 14-16 he said many things about the Holy Spirit, living for Him in this world, and the place He was going to prepare for us. What a wonderful day that will be. If you belong to Jesus, you can be part of that celebration when we are welcomed home to the place He has prepared for us!