Diario del proyecto Christian Naturalists Observations

1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your care upon Him; for He careth for you."

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 20361600 - Field Sparrow; Walton County, Georgia. February 6, 2019. ​

What do you do when life has you down? Pray and go birding! When your job is stretching your stamina to the breaking point? Pray and go birding! When you need to relax and shake off the nerves? Pray and go birding! When the next little thing will tip your headache to a migraine? Pray and go birding!

There is no need for a scientific study to tell me that getting outdoors is a way to reduce stress. There is no need to write a paper about how getting away from a ringing phone will calm my nerves; how unplugging from email and social media will lower my blood pressure; how fresh air will clear my lungs and refresh my mind. I don’t need a scientific study because I know first-hand!

There isn’t a need for the Mayo Clinic to tell me the supernatural benefits of prayer. There is no need for them to post a blog telling me that having a purpose in life reduces depression; that prayer and meditation produces actual physical benefits to my brain; that focusing outside myself can alleviate worry and fear. I don’t need that blog because I know first-hand!

Try it sometime. Stop reading this blog, close your browser, push back the chair and walk out the door. Talk to God; cast your concerns at His feet; enjoy this world that He created. You just might get addicted. I know because I go there every day. So, pray and go birding!

“​The beauty of birds is that they are everywhere, from the deepest wilderness to the most crowded inner cities.” - Noah Strycker

The great thing about enjoying birds is that you can experience that joy just about anywhere you go! Even if we’re shut indoors at a meeting or conference, we can simply pick the seat next to the window and find our avian friends flitting about outside. In his chapter in the book Good Birders Still Don’t Wear White, author and birder Noah Strycker (@flammulated) wrote, “The beauty of birds is that they are everywhere, from the deepest wilderness to the most crowded inner cities.”

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 37676971 - Eastern Bluebird; Walton County, Georgia. January 9, 2020.

And the great thing about being a Christian is that we can engage with our Creator anywhere we are! Whether we are admiring His handiwork on a nature hike, lifting up His name in organized worship, or slipping into a closet during a stressful day at work to call upon His name, our God is ever-present.

In the book of Psalms, David wrote, “If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me” (Psalm 139:8-10). Just like the birds, “from the deepest wilderness, to the most crowded cities”, our God is there!

Lamentations 3:52 "Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause."

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 37276414 - Ring-billed Gull; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. December 23, 2019.

It seems the favorite sport of every dog and child on the beach is to run wildly into a pack of gulls. I have to admit, it does look fun, and I probably did it too as a child. But thankfully, I've never seen any dog or person catch one. While sitting upon the beaches of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, I marveled at the flight of the terns and gulls. Lifting off, taking to the air, circling around, diving and coming back to a landing to avoid the berserker kids and dogs. How do they do it?

© Photographer: William Wise | Agency: Dreamstime.com

From the beginning, as he marveled at the flight of birds, man began chasing the dream to fly. The first concerted efforts came as early as 1485, if not earlier, with Leonardo DaVinci’s Ornithoper blueprints. Although many efforts were made, it wasn’t until 1903 that flight was accomplished by humans. We may have large jumbo jets carrying people across the globe today, but it was a long, arduous process to get there.
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If it was so difficult for man to learn to fly, how did birds catch on so quickly and gracefully learn to take to the air? The answer: they didn’t learn! The birds immediately burst forth in color and flight on Day 5 of creation! They were designed, equipped and enabled to fly from their very beginning. They "got off to a flying start", so to speak! [i]

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 37261613 - Ring-billed Gulls; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. December 27, 2019.

Does that sound like an impossible fairy tale? Well, consider this yarn: “Flight appears to have evolved separately four times in history: in insects, bats, birds and pterosaurs. These four groups of flying animals didn’t evolve from a single, flying ancestor. Instead, they all evolved the ability to fly from separate ancestors that couldn’t fly. This makes flight a case of convergent evolution.”[ii]
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Did you catch that? The complexity of flight evolved separately on four different occasions? Since the probability of even a simple, 200 component, single-celled organism evolving is at least 10 to the 60th (a “one" followed by sixty "zeros") [iii], flight evolving even once is basically an impossibility. But four times?
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It takes less imagination and faith to marvel at the wonder of flight and know that an incredible Artist designed it in one swift stroke! “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air” (Genesis 2:19). Any other hypothesis is just chasing gulls and coming up empty!

​[i] https://creation.com/created-to-fly
[ii] https://www.scienceworld.ca/evolution-flight/
[iii] https://www.icr.org/article/mathematical-impossibility-evolution/