Tuesday, December 21, 2010

And Heaven and Nature Sing!


Can you believe my backyard hawk let me get this close? I've seen him high in the sky, circling above the pines in the late afternoons, the screee-screee of his cry echoing around me.

But yesterday, he swooped down into my yard and I grabbed my camera and headed outside. Whoosh! He soared across the grass and landed on my fence. And there he perched, in his all his glory while I clicked away. I turned to find a spot on better footing. When I looked back to the fence, my hawk was gone. I hadn't heard so much as a flutter.

What a majestic creature! Inside again, I remembered Sigrid Undset's powerful Christmas message and wanted to share it with you.

"And when we give each other Christmas presents in His name, let us remember that he has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, the earth with all its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and moves upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit--and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our own foolishness, from all our sins He came down to earth and gave us Himself."