Starting 2016

Starting 2016, quoting from an Xmas present I received - a wonderful book by John Stott, the preacher and avid bird watcher.  The book is called "The Birds, our teachers."

In a chapter on "The migration of storks", John Stott talks of the homing instinct of birds.

"Even when they are taken to an unfamiliar place and released, they can still find their way home. Pigeons, for example, have been famous for this for centuries, indeed ever since Noah's dove found its way back to the ark (Gen 8:8-12). During WWII, 'pigeon post' became so valuable that the British Air Ministry initiated a register of carrier pigeons and sought to destroy all Peregrine Falcons, which are the principal predators of pigeons. In 1943, a special medal was awarded by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals to a pigeon named 'Winkie', because it had helped rescue the crew of a Bristol Beaufort, which had crashed into the North Sea, by carrying an emergency message more than 120 miles."

"Another example of the 'homing' instinct of birds is of special interest to me. Since 1954, I have had a cottage on the coast of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales. Offshore are the islands of Skomer and Skokholm, on which more than 200,000 pairs of Manx Shearwaters are believed to breed. Manx Shearwaters are birds of the open ocean, which winter as far south as the coast of Argentina. They come to land only to breed, and lay their single egg underneath at the end of a rabbit burrow. In 1952, one was taken from Skokholm and released inland in Cambridge, about 240 miles away; it was back in its burrow seven hours later. On another occasion, a Manx Shearwater was flown 3,000 miles from Skokholm across the Atlantic, and released at Boston's Logan International Airport. Twelve and a half days later, it had returned to its burrow home, having travelled an average of 250 miles a day."

Would that we had as strong a homing instinct spiritually as birds have physically! The more we come to recognise that God is the true home of the human spirit, and that we are waifs and strays without him, the more quickly and painfully will we become aware of even the smallest estrangement from him, and the more eagerly will we return to him. For when we come back, we have come home.

I am challenged … entering 2016 … to know where home is. It is at the bosom of the Father, near the heart of my elder brother and Lord, Jesus. It is in His presence, knowing the nearness of Him. It is being in the Father's house, His holy habitation. It is being at the centre of His will, following Him as He leads (like the pillar of Cloud by day and Fire by night).

"Lord Jesus, please help me to know where Home is. Home is where my Heart is. Help me to know where to store up real treasure too. For where my treasure is, there my heart will be also. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."