The Woodpecker

Most ordinary people do not know (or do not care) there is such a thing as 5 o’clock in the morning. I happen to love mornings, especially since the weather has gotten nicer here in Ohio. Better weather means we can turn down the heat, quit cutting firewood, forget about shoveling snow from the driveway before work, and finally open the windows at night. Spring is a great time! I have to admit that I have enjoyed not waking up to the local classical music station, but rather being jolted out of sleep by noises (coming from my open window) in the back yard. No…we do not live on a farm and our neighbors do not own a rooster. We have a huge natural area covered by trees behind our house and in the early morning these trees are filled with chirping birds. I guess they are God’s natural alarm clock. What is unusual about these sounds is that there is one noise which towers above all others…a woodpecker. This marvelous bird starts around 5:30am and continues for about an hour. If I was not a morning person, that bird would have been dead a few weeks ago but since I am, I enjoy laying in bed and listening. Of course the woodpecker has also peeked my curiosity and I have found myself wandering through the back yard looking for where it lives, but I have never been able to locate it. I know the woodpecker is somewhere because I hear the proof every morning, unless one of my neighbors has an evil obsession with mimicking woodpecker noises at 5:00am. Yes, it is frustrating to not be able to see the woodpecker, but I know he is still there as I listen to his voice every morning. My relationship with God is the same way – I have never seen Him with my eyes, but I enjoy hearing His voice every morning and knowing that He is still there. As you wake up each morning (whatever time that may be), thank Him for the new day and the very breath which is giving you life. “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him“ (Lamentations 3:22-24).