Random observation: I’m so thankful that God didn’t see fit to make me a woodpecker. Seriously. We’ve just spent some time in the mountains, and as I sat in my hammock one afternoon, I watched a grey and black woodpecker as he worked his way up a nearby tree. What kind of padding is inside that bird’s head that allows him to whack his beak over and over on a daily basis into the hard trunk of a tree and not end up addlebrained? From my cushy swinging sanctuary, I considered this. (I actually took a bunny trail of thought for a while, thinking that if the NFL commissioned a study about how God protects a woodpecker’s brain from concussion and then followed that science, maybe a new kind of helmet could be developed for its players.)
Digressions aside, I also considered how, in addition to the constant wear and tear on cranium and skull, if that isn’t enough, what the bird the net gain for his efforts is a bug for a meal. A bug! Yikes.
I watched my feathery companion for a while, secure in the knowledge that as one of God’s creations, he was wonderfully made. I did thank God that I, too, am wonderfully made. And another bunny trail presented itself. I’m not a woodpecker. But. How many times do I bang my head- both figuratively and sometimes literally – on problems in my life that at best will yield me something with the worth of a bug? Often. I stress and stew, expending energy and emotion on things that I could so easily surrender to the Lord. So, random thoughts from my hammock. Don’t be a woodpecker.
