Delight

How precious is your love! Whether creatures of heaven or children of earth, we all find refuge in the shadow of your wings. We feast on the bounty of your estate, and drink from the stream of your delights. In you is the wellspring of Life, and in your light we become enlightened. ~ Psalm 36

When it comes to bird-watching, my default mode is cheerleader, but sometimes I can’t walk away from the need to be a gatekeeper. So when our group was marveling at the astounding number and variety of eagles before (close to three dozen!), I was relentless the wettest of wet blankets shooting down every hopeful identification of a Golden needle in that haystack of Balds. The good news is that despite the sought after Golden Eagle being among the missing that day, the awe of the display of magnificent birds before us was not lost on anyone, even me.

It is always dangerous to get me started talking about birds. Wind me up and I’ll give the Energizer Bunny a run for the money. And that is when the poor victim wishes they hadn’t brought the subject up. But when the other is interested, even curious, well, then let the delight mongering commence. Even when the tale telling borders on a battle of one-upping each other, there are no losers, only more delight.

The Psalmist sang of the divine stream of delight. The metaphor of delight as water reminds us that delight is always close and life-giving. On the whole, our planet is very wet, the drier the location, the more hostile it is to life. Generally, we don’t have to look far to find water. In fact, our very bodies are mostly water. What if we had that attitude about delight? There would be very few places where we could not find it and when we are parched for a taste of delight we only need to recall that we are already filled with it.

My insatiable quest for birds is a thirst for delight. Sure, I’m regularly disappointed by missing specific targets, but that only marks the boundaries of the journey, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve found the bottom of the barrel of delight, simply a place where it was lacking. Obviously, birds are not the only means of discovering delight, like the divine spirit, delight cannot be contained because there is a limitless supply. Where will you seek delight today?

Prayer: Great Source of Awe, tease us with your bounty and fill us with delight on the journey. Amen.