The Empty Bath

Eating lunch this afternoon, I looked out the kitchen window to find a baby bluebird perched on the edge of the garden bath. My tiny nugget of garden time shrinks in the fall, so no surprise that recent rains had evaporated, leaving in the bath a brownish crust spattered with bright yellow field flowers. (Eva flings her treasures about with brilliant nonchalance).

Most birds see an empty bath and promptly fly away in search of another water source; I've seen this often, jotting a quick mental note about better bath-filling habits. With mom and dad bluebird waiting in the nearby pine, flapping their obvious disapproval, I was sure this would be another fly-away.

Not this bird though... Perhaps it was her youth; a naive, yet undeterred anticipation of provision - or perhaps she was simply very thirsty. But this baby just sat, and sat... and sat. In fact, you could say... she waited.

Through the years, my walk with Christ has, at times, reminded me of this picture: feeling as if I am sitting near an 'empty bath'. When prayer is dry, study shallow, connection rare, how often have I 'flown away' in search of another source? Such searches never satisfy though.

Perhaps I will take a cue from the baby bird whose tender anticipation made her sure that if she waited long enough, she'd be supplied with more than enough water to drink, and to cleanse her baby-fluff wings.

After all, she was right in anticipating; how could I resist for even five minutes? And if my heart is moved by the visit of a baby bluebird to an empty bath, what must be the heart of my Heavenly Father for his daughter who also, at times, gets thirsty and needs a 'bath'? I too will wait.