by Pastor Michael Bostock, Occold Baptist Church
May 06

Back-end of last year a bird popped out of the gorse on the dunes - brown with irregular black stripes on the back and a grey throat and chest. I couldn’t identify it. On the next visit, earlier this year, I saw the same(!) bird in the same place. I was determined to identify it. So, binoculars glued to my eyes I made a mental note of the plumage – back, wing bars, head, chest, size.

Happily, I met a couple of Reserve Guides - very knowledgeable ladies. I tried to describe the bird. They didn’t know. ‘Could be a dunnock,’ one of them said. ‘No, I don’t think so – I know a dunnock; we get them in our garden at home.’

After being suitably refreshed with the excellent homemade soup in the Visitors’ Centre I determined to face the biting north-easterly again and trudge back to the sand dunes to get another glimpse. Did I identify it this time? No! It didn’t show – but that’s bird-watching for you!

What I should have done on the first sighting was refer to a trusted field guide in order to identify it.

This reminds me of how we all tend to do the same thing with our lives. We go about our daily life and we make decisions about this and that. For the most part we seem to get along OK – or at least we think so. But did you know, we don’t have to guess about life?

An accurate ‘field guide’ is available to us. You probably have one on your shelf. The Bible. God has given us a guide as to how we should live in order to have a fulfilled life. There is no point guessing about life and death, time and eternity, and absolutely no point being dogmatic in one’s own opinion.

Why not take up the Bible today and start by reading, say, Mark’s Gospel and then some of the Psalms. If you want any help, just call me.

What was the bird? A dunnock!