The new year, our denomination’s emphasis on times and
dates, personal relationships and, of course, music had me thinking recently
about time.
Several years ago I was driving down the road toward my home
in rural East Tennessee with my two girls in the car when I approached a curve
in the road with woods on both sides. As I came around the bend near the
Tennessee River, a large hawk was swooping across the road, and I didn’t have
time to swerve to avoid it. I caught him square on the grill of my vehicle, and
there was a thump and an explosion of feathers in the air. I caught sight of
him in the middle of the road from my rear view mirror. I quickly make a U-turn
and returned to the scene of the accident.
I parked off to the side of the road, turned on my hazards,
and jumped out to assess the situation. The bird was standing up and rocking
back and forth, making an occasional soft humming noise. One of its wings
seemed to be hanging out awkwardly. Cars started to approach and stop to look
at this majestic creature. I grabbed a large stick from the side of the road
and tried to get close enough to see if I could nudge it off the road. The bird
grudgingly obliged, gingerly hopping off to some nearby brush. It then closed
it’s eyes and started the slow rocking motion again.
Traffic resumed, and I was wondering what to do next about
this hawk. Should I try and put it in my car and take it somewhere? Should I
try and put it out of its misery? Should I just get in my car and go home? If I
leave, will it get eaten by another animal? I called a local animal hospital
that then sent me on to animal control. I was informed that there was nothing
to be done with this sort of wildlife and to just leave it alone. I offered a
prayer on the animal’s behalf and returned to my vehicle and proceeded home.
The next day I went to work and, on the way home, pulled
over to see if the bird had made it through the night. I spotted the bird
standing close to where I had left it, as I approached it took a few steps,
spread it’s wings, and flew off to a nearby branch in the trees. I was quite
relieved that the bird had made it through the night and was probably going to
make it.
The experience left me with several thoughts regarding
situations when dealing with people. I like to be able to quickly and
efficiently “fix” things. If I had tried to grab the bird, put him in my car
and take him somewhere, who knows what the outcome would have been – but
probably not good. Sometimes people are “shell shocked” from various emotional
issues in their life, and we see that they are in distress and want to “fix”
them. We wonder why are they behaving
this way; if only they could see the answer right in front of them!
The experience with the hawk reminded me that there are
times that healing needs to take place outside of my understanding, and I need
to patiently wait on God’s time. There
are times that I want to help, but in many situations the best course of action
may be to simply pray. Ephesians 6:18 comes to mind: “And pray in the Spirit on
all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
I suppose I did DO a few right things before praying. I made
a quick decision in my mind while driving to TURN AROUND and see if I could
help, and I got the bird out of the way of immediate, life-threatening danger.
After a couple of actions, I had to let nature run its course, and the only
other thing I could do was pray. Maybe the next time you’re wondering what to
do about a delicate personal situation you’ll think about hawks, time, and
prayer.
Richard Hickam
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