'Too wonderful for me'

“Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin” (Proverbs 30:18-19, ESV).

The list above just about covers it: The fowl representing the kingdom that occupies the airy strata of creation, the reptile that rules in the rocky lower kingdom; the inanimate realm of technology and physics, and the mysteries of relationship in the invisible dimension of the heart. All are “too wonderful for me,” and for you, but not for God. He understands each domain exhaustively because He made them, and as the writer of Hebrews says, the builder of the house is greater than the house.

A new “too wonderful” thing was added to the list in my town. At dusk, a cloud of birds has appeared, putting on quite a show. Hundreds of them coalesce into a tight formation, like a twisting and turning black helix, and fly in odd ellipses over the area of a few blocks, as if by a common mind, casting a shadow on the ground like a solid object would. They land on my friend Barbara’s tree and engorge it with feathers and caws before suddenly shaking free of their host and commencing the strange circuit again. The whole neighborhood is talking about it.

I texted Heidi, my birder friend (she knows, for example, that you say “Canada geese,” not “Canadiangeese”), and she texted back: “Starlings do that. It’s called murmuration. Look up videos! It’s quite astounding.” I texted back: “Shoot! I was hoping it was the end of the world.”

We do know that birds will have a starring role in that great and terrible Day:

“And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. … And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh” (Revelation 19:20-21, ESV).

But there is no need to think the fowl spectacle in Barbara’s neighborhood is angry birds. We know from Psalm 104 that even the great Leviathan was wont to play.

“Oh LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. These all look to you, to give them their food in due season” (Psalm 104:24-27, ESV).

They may just be performing for the pleasure of their Maker.