When we pause, and seek God in simple things, He blesses us with boundless hope.
The mourning doves are back and making nests again on several of the capitals of the pillars around our house, and they’ll be at it through July. You’ll hear their mournful call and find the mess below the nest: pieces of twigs, grass, and the ever-present “little eyeballs” scattered among the nesting debris as the parents clean the nest. Like most babies, the hatchlings are cute, and prolific poop-machines.
I’ve referred to them before in my blog, dated 5-26-2018, “The dove who rested.”
Both the male and female feed their young on “crop milk,” which is a yogurt-like secretion produced by the walls of their crop. Both parents are needed to provide enough food for the growing nestlings during their first seven days in order to survive.
The female Mourning dove sits on her eggs from late afternoon until midmorning, and then the male takes his turn.
Not to belabor facts about doves (a lot more could be said) the scientific name for mourning doves is Zenaida Macroura, for the honor of princess Zenaida Charlotte Julie Bonaparte, the wife of famed zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The word “Macroura”, which means “long-tailed” in Greek, for the doves’ long tail.
The Mourning dove often symbolizes sorrow, in some cultures, the mourning dove is connected to love, peace, and harmony. One company uses the word to describe the gentleness of their products. Either a message of love from God, or an aid in a time of crisis, it often represents a blessing from God.
Certainly, God has equipped mourning doves to live as He designed them. He has blessed them; that’s what a beatitude is, a blessing, or favor from God. Doves don’t make, or need, a plan to act like doves. They just do it, because they are doves. Not so much with us. As Christians, we have a sin nature at war with our new nature in Christ.
I have been reading about the Beatitudes, a part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus spoke first about the blessing of the “poor in spirit.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:3, NASB.)
So how does this relate to mourning doves and their nesting practices?
At times when I’ve swept nesting debris, I thought about the debris in my own life, past and present, in the light of God’s holiness. I can’t “sweep it up” by my own efforts, except to push it out of my mind and my heart; not an easy thing to do when I want to draw closer to the Lord Jesus. And the closer I draw to Him the more I am aware of the sin in my heart. I struggle every day with pride, selfishness, bitterness, and jealousy.
Isaiah, though a righteous man, recognized his lack of merit when he had a vision of God. He was poor in spirit.
“‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’” (Isaiah 6:5, NASB.)
Yet, Christ died for me, and you. Those who accept Him as Savior receive the Holy Spirit, and are made new. I’m no longer a slave to my sin nature, but it’s still present, and at war with me to turn me towards sin. By the power of the Spirit within me, He enables me to resist and overcome sin.
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14, NASB.)
I see more clearly now than I did as a young Christian just how much He has forgiven me, and while I don’t want to lose that understanding and awareness, I also know He has compassion on me, and has forgiven me. Psalm 103 is worth reading.
We live in a time when people put a high value on self-esteem, and we’re often encouraged to see ourselves as better than we are, and these same sources proclaim, “You deserve it!” I see ads on TV proclaiming “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” This is a quote from Napoleon Hill, who wrote a self-help book, Think and Grow Rich. He died in 1970. When I hear this said, I think, “Don’t jump off any high buildings and expect to grow wings—your dream may end abruptly.”
Charles Stanley wrote, “Godly dependence is not a sign of weakness but one of immeasurable strength and confidence. There are problems in life that only God can solve, tasks only He can perform, and solutions that can only be discovered through the wisdom He gives” (Stanley, Pathways to His Presence, June 1.)
Jesus told his disciples to realize their spiritual poverty before a Holy God, to think less of themselves than others, and it would be a blessing to them. This is counter-cultural in Jesus’ time, and in our present day. I believe when I realize my spiritual poverty, the more I’ll trust issues of my life to Him each day.
“For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will glorify the lowly with salvation” (Psalms 149:4, NASB.)
Real happiness and usefulness is found in sovereign grace, and not in the pursuit of self-esteem. God’s grace is the cure to low self-esteem. I’m blessed when I feel my guilt, helplessness, unworthiness and emptiness, and am honest about these things, and seek God’s grace. I know He’s waiting to give it.
Yes, I want to be poor in spirit. I want to draw near to God’s sovereign grace.
Selah.