“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously…and it shall be given to you.” James 1:5
A few months ago the night before an international conference for which I had numerous responsibilities, I went out for a late night walk around the hotel grounds. As I was praying and asking the Lord for wisdom, a dark shape skimmed over the surface of the pond and landed on the branch above my head. I was surprised to see an owl peering down at me in the midst of this Asian urban “jungle” of 8 million people. Still, I took it as a sign, that if “any of you lacks wisdom…it shall be given to you.” He sat there for the next hour just above me.
The next night before leading the congregation in worship, I shared my owl story. After the service the General Manager and a few members of his staff met me in the lobby. The GM suddenly said, “I can see that God is really with you,” indicating he had been listening to my owl testimony. My curiosity tweaked, I proceeded to ask him and his staff if they had been employed at the hotel for long? Each of them had been there from periods of many months to several years. “Have you ever seen an owl here on the hotel grounds before?” Nope!
Three days ago I was out with the kids at a local park/reservoir. It had gotten dark, and as we were leaving we noticed something out of the ordinary in the road. To our surprise, we stopped to find it to be a small owl with an injured wing. So we decided to bring it home and nurse it back to health. Meet Harvey.
Beloved, these two incidents are not a coincidence. Hebrews 1:1 says God “at various times and in various ways” has always been speaking to His people. So what is He saying to us today? God is willing and waiting to give wisdom to anyone who asks. Sometimes He swoops down with a sudden rush of wisdom that comes to us when darkness surrounds us. Yes, sometimes it comes like a gift, or a thought, or a word. But beloved, He does not just want to stop there. He wants His wisdom to take up residence. Owl bet you hadn’t thought about that! Amen.
Owls are such a picture of wisdom … Two attributes of owls that the Lord has used to teach me about wisdom are these: owls are wide-eyed (attentive) and their necks have a much greater turning radius than ours (they are not “stiff-necked”)! Here is something I remember often:
A wise old owl sat on an oak;
The more he saw, the less he spoke.
The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren’t we more like that bird?
I hope this little fella teaches me some…right now I just can’t get over how cute he is. Go Harvey! Trusting you all are well.