Exciting News from My Winterberry Bush

All winter, that faithful bush offered me glimpses into a secret world of snowflakes and icicles on bright red berries.  All winter, we waited with hope while we watched our homemade bird feeder.  I've witnessed a whole cycle of death and rebirth outside this kitchen window. 

That bush never fails to show me something about my own heart.

Today, we position a kitchen chair and take another peek at the Northern Cardinal nest.  Three eggs!  I learn that this collection of eggs is called a clutch.

Northern Cardinal's Clutch of Eggs

I know it only as a verb.  To clutch means to grasp and seize.  It's a desperate verb.  But as a noun relating to birds, it simply means all the eggs produced at one time in a nest.  No desperation, no seizing.  It's just the fact of reproduction and new life.

If I wait out the seasons, and if I stop grasping and instead let God bring things about in due time, the result will be as wonderful and right as a Northern Cardinal's clutch of eggs.  They'll hatch in a few weeks.  We can't rush this.  We can only observe and honor it.   We cooperate, not clutch. 

A wise mentor told me that the secret to a life with God is to be "led and not driven."  It means patience.  We don't clutch.

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Journal:  Where can I be more led and less driven?