one of God's masterpieces

Recently our staff was alerted to the fact that there was a young hawk hanging around outside the front door of the church building. That was a unique happening so the offices emptied and soon everyone in the building was looking at a juvenile Cooper's Hawk that had been injured and had come to the front yard of the church building for shelter.

Immediately someone suggested that we call an animal shelter and make arrangements for the hawk to receive emergency care. DK called around and found a woman who did animal rescue. She said that we should capture the hawk and she would come right over.

"Capture the hawk?" Is that a joke? I wasn't planning on capturing the thing, after all don't hawks have sharp beaks and talons?" An injury involving a predatory bird didn't exactly fit into my idea of a claim for workman's compensation. "Well sir, I was studying the Bible and the next thing I knew a hawk was biting me on the hand."

But the prospect of capturing a real live hawk sounded a whole lot more interesting than writing another devotional nugget. So we got a tablecloth, a plastic rubbermaid bin, and with cameras rolling four grown men ganged up on a frightened and elusive masterpiece of God's creation.

Brian McLaren put me on to the concept of caring for God's universe as if it was a famous masterpiece. I like that idea. If Monet had been a friend of mine I would probably make every effort to keep one of his paintings from being destroyed. How much more so a masterpiece of God's.

A Cooper's Hawk is a masterpiece from the standpoint that it is a beautiful and efficient creature. It feeds on (ahem) other birds (sorry) and has been known to watch bird feeders for an easy meal. That's a new take on the idea of "feeding birds." One bird gets a seed and the other bird gets a seedeater. I was amazed to read that the Cooper's Hawk doesn't tear at its prey like other hawks, but simply squeezes them to death, or holds them under water until they drown.

Anyway, we caught the hawk, sent it on it's way and went back to work. Our hawk had a broken wing, and it was starving, judging by how skinny it was. The animal handler put a hood on the hawk and then it was calm for examination. It was so skinny you could feel every rib. Yes, I'm not kidding, it let us touch it and even examine it's broken wing.

I think my grandson would have liked to have been in on this adventure. One of our favorite things to do together is "help the birds." When you put out a birdfeeder (now is a good time) stock it up with sunflower seeds and think about the Cooper's Hawk. Okay, maybe you don't want to think about the Cooper's Hawk, but put out the feeder anyway.