A PAIR OF SEA GULLS

Stay or move? Sell or rent? Teach or write? Date or wait? When and where and what do I do next Father? Tell me your will so that I can obey it. Be my husband and call the shots for my heart is confused. Order my steps, I beg you!--

WOW! … As soon as I wrote that last line, the wind suddenly picked up big time. I watched an umbrella that was ripped out of the sand and whipped past several families. Just then, I heard 2 sea gulls crying overhead. It immediately reminded me of a spectacular aerial show of little birds the Lord presented a few weeks ago.

I knew the Lord was in that wind. Watch them! He said.

The two gulls together had a great time swooping and twirling in the wind, up above the beach, the trees… they separated and came together several times. What kind of elaborate game is this?

I stood up and traced their journey. It was beautiful, exhilarating. The winds grew even harder and my hair was whipping around my face. Suddenly, the pair separated. One darted left and one tore off to the right and vanished out of sight.

I literally turned around in circles, looking over the trees, the water, all around me. But no, there was only one gull left. She flapped and fluttered around, circled the beach, the trees, then came down to rest alone on the white sand.

She stood motionless, facing the water and the wind. Her mate was no where to be found. She looked tired. Bewildered. Yes, a misfit on this beach of families. I know how you feel little bird. I waited.

It seemed a very long time that she stayed there. Stunned? Lonely? Unsure of her strength? Would another gull appear? None did. Eventually, she spread her wings and ran straight toward the water. She gracefully took flight again, rising quickly into the headwinds.

She tried a few different directions and I wondered if she didn’t know where to go. Can’t be easy. She circled up and back over the lots alone. Again, I felt like I knew how she felt, first going west, then east, then north. No one to play with, huh? Not as much fun as before, I agreed. I too, feel engulfed in loneliness.

Yes, sometimes we are blown apart.
Sometimes we need to be alone.
To strengthen our wings for fiercer winds.
To learn to wait on the sun-bleached sands.

It may not be what I want to hear.
It’s not near as much fun as I thought.
Maybe when these winds die down
There will be another pair of wings.

I pondered the performance awhile. I knew the Lord had sent it right then, right there before my eyes. Hadn’t I just begged him to respond to my confusion? They were here only about five minutes. So fleeting is life!
I am so sad right now. I need to go home.
Is this you, Lord? Is this you speaking to answer my prayer?

I glance the skies again, so hopeful.
A black and orange oriole just appeared, stark against the sand.
Oh, happy loner, how do you do it?
I follow him with my eye, with such deep longing.
I sigh. Lord, I don’t want to be alone!

Just behind him, further out, my eye caught movement… yes!
A white pair of gulls traced the tree line out and disappeared around a distant corner.
Like a glimpse of the future perhaps? Yes, Lord! The future’s in your hands.
Maybe around some bend in the road, I will understand more clearly.
I cannot see what you have planned.

No geese today in comfortable pairs.
Just gulls and one striking black oriole.
Thank you for vision at the beach, dear Lord.
Where wind and water and scenes are ever changing.
But you remain the same!

And just as I was thanking the Lord,
A shadow of wings fell right across these pages—yes!
She landed before me, scooped something up in her beak to eat,
and looked straight at my face!

A child came running to chase her away and she took off calmly.
Sad, but I traced her glide and to my delight
she was met with a mate and swooped away into the clouds—
All in a matter of seconds.

Now they are gone and I am stunned.
Lord, when I don’t expect it, you are able to appear in the twinkling of an eye—
all your ways are wondrous.
NOW I am encouraged! Excited! My spirits are lifted.

You, who know my every thought and dream,
care more than I can comprehend.
You can send a gull to wink at me,
you can speak in the winds and the waves.

Help me to trust you more deeply…
And wait.

Amen.
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Does the Lord look at me the way I watched that sole gull on the sand? Did he truly orchestrate that nature show to synchronize with the innermost cries of my heart? Yes, I believe it.

What of the striking black oriole, but an interlude of independent mourning in the grand performance? This is an essential and dark season that I must forge alone. It is the black Sabbath of my soul.

He perfectly illustrated the beauty of togetherness, a season of healing, and encouragement to wait for the unexpected.

What seems like never-ending loneliness will pass.
The scenes will change, new characters appear,
Winds and seasons and times all in His hands.
I will look forward with hope.

I will mount up on wings of eagles and fly again.

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Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing…

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:26-31