|
Wow! There they are!
What a great gift after an inspiring morning of
Lessons and Carols at Church. Our swan family,
right by our dock. I could see “the gang” from the
road at the end of our lagoon, and quickly made
the corner, drove down the block to our driveway,
and rushed into the house. Then out the back door
with some bread, and down to the dock. This flock
of sizeable birds are like family. The parents
nest every year near our home, hatch five to seven
little fluff balls around May, and then eventually
bring the kids around to our dock for handouts. We
have the privilege of watching them grow through
the summer. Usually, they are gone by now. Then
the next year, it is just the parents, hatching a
new family.
This was a
particular treat, seeing the past summer’s family
in January. The children had grown tremendously.
They were as large as their parents. And they
competed with them for the food that I dropped on
the water, trying to share it among nine
aggressive, big birds. “Seven swans a swimming”
floated into my mind. The Twelve Days of
Christmas! Let’s see, you start counting on the
25th, or is it the 26th… okay the 25th. That made
today the ninth day of Christmas. Cool. On the
ninth day of Christmas- nine swans a swimming.
Yeah, but it’s supposed to be nine ladies dancing.
Well, legend has it that the whole song is just a
memory tool for Catechists from during the 16th
century religious wars in England. So if I want
to do nine swans, I’ll do nine swans.
The nine in the song
is said to represent the nine fruits of the Holy
Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. (Galatians 5:22) Hmmm. The number
works. But the nine swans fighting with each other
and an even larger flock of attacking seagulls
seem to be missing all nine of the fruits. But it
did bring to mind the tremendous contrast between
the frivolous fun that I was having with all of
this and the horrible devastation in another
waterfront area. Here I was casting bread on calm
water, in the safety of my secure neighborhood,
having playful thoughts about symbols of Christian
love, while fellow humans around the Indian Ocean
would fight more tenaciously than the swans for
the morsels that I was doling out. 150,000 or more
dead. Millions left homeless.
How blessed we are,
and how greatly we are called to steward those
blessings, exercise the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
and share our abundance. But, it is human nature
to grow to take for granted most of what we have.
It is also human nature to even take for granted
human suffering when it happens gradually.
According to the UNAIDS “2004 Report on the global
AIDS epidemic,” in Sub-Saharan Africa more than
6,000 people a day are dying from the disease.
That works out to 2,200,000 in 2003. Yet our
attention is grabbed by the tsunami while we hear
little of the tragedy in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Likewise, were it not for the Tsunami, we would
probably have little knowledge of the people from
the affected region. Funny how human nature
works.
Nine swans a
swimming becomes pretty important in that light.
The nine fruits of the Holy Spirit are well
represented by our Baptismal Covenant. When we
fully live our Baptismal Covenant, the nine fruits
are active in our lives. With the nine fruits
active, everything that affects our fellow man
becomes our concern- our stewardship. All that we
have is given us by God to do his work. It is
helpful to have unexpected reminders of what that
work is. |
