American Robin (Turdus migratorius) ~ Springtime Meditations

            My car died on the highway and had to be towed. My best friend, who is an absolute saint, picked me up and brought me to the dealership while we waited for my car to show up. While we were sitting in her car, we rolled the windows down and let in the delicious scents of spring. The air was warm and balmy, and full of birdsong. It tasted like life itself, crisp as an apple, and soothing as a mother’s song. We watched some robins hopping across the sun-dappled lawn. They were returning to the area on their route along the 37-degree isotherm. I can’t imagine how hungry they must have felt, having migrated 1000 miles from their wintering grounds in Mexico where they’d had only small fruits to eat all season. The birds seemed happy to find the lawn packed with earthworms and were merrily gulping down all that they could find. My friend was fascinated by the robins’ behavior—how they stood perfectly still with their heads sideways only to suddenly throw their heads full-force into the grass. She asked me about this behavior; I explained, “They are listening to the ground. They can hear where a worm is moving, so they’re turning their ears towards the surface of the earth. That’s how they know where to peck at the dirt.” I also explained why it’s getting harder and harder for robins to find food because of the loud traffic. Many birds die during migration because they can’t hear well enough to hunt well over the noise. Other species of birds have a hard time finding their food because the food itself runs away from loud noises. A recent ‘phantom road’ experiment conducted in Japan revealed that traffic noises played in the wilderness caused the number of birds and their prey (dragonflies and grasshoppers) to decrease significantly compared with other parts of the wilderness where the noises were not played.[1] Noise pollution is having an increasingly bad effect on animals. This is also evident in the response to nature when noise is removed from a typically noisy area. For instance, people around the globe noticed a larger presence of wildlife in urban areas during the covid-19 pandemic.[2]

            Too much noise can be a bad thing, and not just for birds looking for worms. The philosopher Seneca wrote “The mind when distracted absorbs nothing deeply.”[3] We are living in a clamoring world; a world that beats the drum of distraction until we’ve forgotten how to think or feel or see. As we seek spiritual food, we often find ourselves going to the wrong places for nourishment. We reach for our smart phones instead of the Word of God. We’d rather spend time numbing the pain than coming to the only Physician who can heal us. When I read the gospels, I see a strong trend of retreat from the noisy world. I see Jesus coming away from the bustling towns, away from the campsites, away from even His closest friends at times. Jesus knew how to find quiet places to seek His Father in.[4] Why is it, after a deeply impactful church sermon, we rush away to have lunch with friends? Why are we afraid to go away by ourselves and talk to God about what He is teaching us? It’s not wrong to go out with friends on a Sunday afternoon, but it’s foolish to turn away from God when He invites us into a quiet moment with Him. I am all to guilty of this! As time goes on, I look back and see innumerable times when I missed a golden opportunity to sit at His feet and silently listen to Him.

            Someone might say to me, “But we can commune with God anywhere. Why should I go away by myself?” In response, I would point to the Bible, both in terms of examples and specific instruction. Samuel heard God when he was asleep; it’s easier to hear the Lord’s voice when we are quiet and still.[5] Elijah heard God’s voice as a whisper.[6] Moses came away from the bustling camp in the desert to meet with God.[7] The Bible instructs us to be still and know that He is our God.[8] In the words of Habakkuk, when the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him.[9] Jesus Himself said it well when He instructed His disciples to go away by themselves when they prayed so they could speak to God in secret.[10] This was said in the context of avoiding praying showy prayers to impress others, but I still think it is applicable to our personal prayer lives which should be more focused on speaking to God rather than people. Our prayers are colored by how much time we spend alone with God. Oftentimes I’ll hear someone I don’t know well pray for the first time and think to myself, “now here is someone who has learned to inhabit quiet places with God!”

            Unfortunately, many Christians haven’t been taught a rhythm for seeking God in solitude. We often refer to ‘quiet times’—a daily routine to read God’s word. But these often boil down to a personal study using a devotional like a textbook to analyze and dissect various Biblical passages. Study of the Word is essential to Christian life, but I’ve met so many who can quote their Bibles backwards and forwards and have never had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. I remember meeting a world-renowned Muslim scholar in Oxford and realizing with a turn of my stomach that he knew my Bible better than I did. Learning the Bible does not equate to developing a relationship with God. As James writes, shouldn’t simply familiarize ourselves with the Bible and then stop there, because this is a way to deceive ourselves. We’ve got to let it transform us.[11]

            So how do we break through the noise pollution of everyday life to receive the Spiritual nourishment we so need? I believe the solution is a return to meditation. Perhaps you’ve heard the term ‘meditation’ in the context of an article title: “Why Christians need to Avoid Meditation”, “The Dangers of Meditation” or some such thing. While it is true that Eastern meditation is antithetical to Christianity, the meditation we read about in the Bible is a wonderful practice that the modern church should return to. It saddens me that many Christian scholars equivocate all meditation with Eastern meditation and then condemn the entire concept. Throughout the Psalms we read of the delights of meditation, and how we are meant to meditate on God’s promises day and night. Psalm 63 speaks of meditating on God in the watches of the night, and Psalm 143 speaks of meditating on all that God has done. We aren’t meant to simply read God’s Word, we are meant to meditate on it. I envision meditation as a sort of digestion. There are at least three words in the New Testament that refer to meditation, but my favorite is meletaō (μελετάω) which means to roll around and around in one’s mind. I picture this as a rumination—as something that is ingested and rolled around in the gut while nourishment is extracted from it. Imagine that I meditate on the words of Jesus: “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light”.[12] I roll this around in my mind again and again all day, thinking about what this passage says about me, what it says about God, and what it says about reality. I come away from my ruminations understanding that Jesus is offering me a way of life that lifts my burdens, but that I am meant to submit myself to Him. Then perhaps later my mind comes back to the passage again and I think about the fact that the passage is inviting me to get to work for the Lord! Thus, there’s a lifting of a burden, and also an invitation to pull the plough and prepare the ground for a planting that will yield a harvest of righteousness. And on and on in the quiet of my spirit, a gentle nourishment begins to strengthen me as I extract God’s truth through meditation.

            It’s in the calm places of the world that we hear our Shepherd’s gentle whisper. It’s in the stillness of a springtime meditation that we consume the fortifying truth we need from Scripture. As the robin stands with his ear cocked toward the ground, we must learn to stand quietly before the Lord with open ears, ready to receive Him. This is a profound mystery: our spiritual food is not simply verses in the Bible or the wisdom preached from the pulpit on a Sunday morning. The bread that nourishes us is Christ, the Bread of Life. He gives us Himself in those quiet moments, and there is no comparison to a better spiritual food.

 

 

 

To learn more about robin migration patterns, check out: https://journeynorth.org/tm/robin/facts_migration.html

 

[1] Senzaki, Masayuki, Taku Kadoya, and Clinton D. Francis. 2020. "Direct and indirect effects of noise pollution alter biological communities in and near noise-exposed environments". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 287 (1923): 20200176.

[2] Zellmer, Amanda J., Eric M. Wood, Thilina Surasinghe, Breanna J. Putman, and Gregory B. Pauly. 2020. "What can we learn from wildlife sightings during the COVID-19 global shutdown?"  Ecosphere. 11 (8).

[3] In his letter to Paulinus. 

[4] Luke 5:16

[5] 1 Samuel 3:4

[6] 1 Kings 19

[7] Exodus 33:7

[8] Psalm 46:10

[9] Habakkuk 2:20

[10] Matthew 6:6

[11] James 1:22

[12] Matthew 11:30