ears to hear

There’s a Be Good Tanya’s song that says the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.

I think I have to agree.

Some co-workers and I were locked out of the office one morning this week, and waiting for a key: sitting on the curb chatting, eating watermelon, flicking away ants, sweating, feeling a bit guilty and wondering when the boss would show up…

when suddenly we heard such a beautiful song! Pat was the first to spot its source, pointing and laughing and exclaiming – “veLy sa-mall!!!”

Sure enough, a tiny bird was perched up there and singing so hard its throat was throbbing. Imagine something the size of a hummingbird come to rest on a power line, and barely able to balance for the joy inside. Imagine the strength of its song, as clear and undiluted as the blue sky behind it.

(These imaginations are true, I promise, even though some other things are true, too -- ungrounded electrical lines and nasty Bangkok smog! But I’ve never yet seen a bird electrocuted and the rain here lately makes morning air gentle, and yes, even a good clear blue…)

I am delighted when the same bird visits the tamarind tree outside my balcony window, or flits through the trees which are ripening bananas not far from the front step, or stops a moment in the stand of bamboo piled up with all the broken bottles we should be recycling.

There's a part of me that wants to run out and buy a "Birds of Southeast Asia" book so I can name that bird for myself, capture the brilliance of that morning memory, file it away somewhere special.

But Jesus says things like "you never know where the spirit's coming from, or where it's going..." (cf. John 3:8), and so there's this other part of me that's content to let that shining song stay up there with its tiny bearer, somewhere in the yet-wild Bangkok blue...