In a previous blog, posted back in April of this year, I referenced seeing an osprey rising up from the water with a fish in its talons while I was crossing over the Tennessee River. My point was how God provides for the fowls of the air, just as His word testifies.
At that time, I talked about having earlier seen an osprey chick wigwagging its head back and forth as it sat ensconced within a very large osprey nest situated high atop a Tennessee Valley Authority Power Pole immediately adjacent to the bridge. I concluded that it was quite obvious that what I was witnessing was one of the two parents of this chick headed home with a scrumptious meal in tow.
I share this here because I passed over that same bridge again yesterday. Only this time, I did not see an adult osprey rising from the river. Nor did I see an osprey chick when I looked up at the same TVA pole. Rather, what I saw was an empty nest and two birds perched nearby on the pole. One bird was quite large. The second was only slightly smaller.
Clearly, the former was a parent and the latter a nearly full grown offspring. Equally as clear was that the parents had now nearly succeeded in raising their brood. I smiled as I thought to myself, “Congratulations on a job well done!”
It was then that God used the transformation of this little osprey chick to speak to me. For my very next thought went to my own children, with whom the Lord has richly blessed my wife and me. They were each entrusted to us at birth by Almighty God. In the intervening three decades, they have each now come of age, left the nest, and demonstrated the ability to be autonomous individuals fully functioning in a responsible way in society. For that, I am extremely grateful.
And even though I do not tell as much as I should, I am quite proud of each of them! When the time came for them to leave the proverbial nest, each in turn spread their respective wings and boldly took to the air!
Now, of course, each is married. And together with their respective spouses, each in turn has also now been blessed with children of their own.
What I concluded as these thoughts ran through my mind while crossing the bridge is that I will now commit to do at least three things for my adult children.
First, more than ever, I will pray for them in their awesome newfound responsibility as parents. Secondly, more than ever, I will co0mmit to assist them in this God-given task. And finally, I will let them know of these first two commitments.
I cannot help but wonder how that adult osprey felt sitting up there on that power pole next to his or her progeny. Did he or she feel pride? Satisfaction? Completion? Fulfillment? Elation? I will never know. But these are certainly just a few of the things my wife and I feel when we look at our three grown children.
And part of our prayer for them is that they too will one day be allowed to feel the same way about their own little fledglings. For surely this is part of what the Good Lord intended all along.
NOTE: Cf.: "In His Grasp!", posted 04/02/2020 at:
https://www.cleoejacksoniii.com/my-ongoing-thoughts/in-his-grasp.
At that time, I talked about having earlier seen an osprey chick wigwagging its head back and forth as it sat ensconced within a very large osprey nest situated high atop a Tennessee Valley Authority Power Pole immediately adjacent to the bridge. I concluded that it was quite obvious that what I was witnessing was one of the two parents of this chick headed home with a scrumptious meal in tow.
I share this here because I passed over that same bridge again yesterday. Only this time, I did not see an adult osprey rising from the river. Nor did I see an osprey chick when I looked up at the same TVA pole. Rather, what I saw was an empty nest and two birds perched nearby on the pole. One bird was quite large. The second was only slightly smaller.
Clearly, the former was a parent and the latter a nearly full grown offspring. Equally as clear was that the parents had now nearly succeeded in raising their brood. I smiled as I thought to myself, “Congratulations on a job well done!”
It was then that God used the transformation of this little osprey chick to speak to me. For my very next thought went to my own children, with whom the Lord has richly blessed my wife and me. They were each entrusted to us at birth by Almighty God. In the intervening three decades, they have each now come of age, left the nest, and demonstrated the ability to be autonomous individuals fully functioning in a responsible way in society. For that, I am extremely grateful.
And even though I do not tell as much as I should, I am quite proud of each of them! When the time came for them to leave the proverbial nest, each in turn spread their respective wings and boldly took to the air!
Now, of course, each is married. And together with their respective spouses, each in turn has also now been blessed with children of their own.
What I concluded as these thoughts ran through my mind while crossing the bridge is that I will now commit to do at least three things for my adult children.
First, more than ever, I will pray for them in their awesome newfound responsibility as parents. Secondly, more than ever, I will co0mmit to assist them in this God-given task. And finally, I will let them know of these first two commitments.
I cannot help but wonder how that adult osprey felt sitting up there on that power pole next to his or her progeny. Did he or she feel pride? Satisfaction? Completion? Fulfillment? Elation? I will never know. But these are certainly just a few of the things my wife and I feel when we look at our three grown children.
And part of our prayer for them is that they too will one day be allowed to feel the same way about their own little fledglings. For surely this is part of what the Good Lord intended all along.
NOTE: Cf.: "In His Grasp!", posted 04/02/2020 at:
https://www.cleoejacksoniii.com/my-ongoing-thoughts/in-his-grasp.