Zipporah
Christ invites us to consider the birds, who “though they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” [1]
He asks, “Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Yet worry about work, purpose, provision, and safety tends to dominate our time and energy. And I, dear reader, am guiltiest of all.
I remember the day of my very first job interview in Shanghai. I had dressed up: shirt, tie, slacks, fancy shoes. That day I was in a tremendous rush, as everyone in Shanghai always seemed to be every day. The interview was in a packed area of town called Xu Jia Hui, an intersection of major roads surrounded by fifty and sixty story skyscrapers.
Hustling down the street, looking fine and nervous, a bird crapped right on my head. I looked around, not a tree in sight. Did this part of town even have birds!? What the heck!?
I tried to rinse off in the public restroom before the interview, but to no avail. They didn’t extend me a job offer that day.
Consider the birds.
***
The circumstances surrounding a baby’s entry into the world make a large impact on their life. A child’s name is a statement about their identity and an aspiration for their future. The name Zipporah means ‘little bird’.
Birds are free to fly. Their range of movement is unthinkable to most animal species and even humans. They will cover thousands of miles in their lifetimes.
Yet their existence is defined by its communal nature. They are not rugged individualists, but rather recognize the necessity of community and interdependence. They fly in flocks.
Little birds are courageous and resourceful. They don’t have a ton of possessions, but rather repurpose thrown away items and broken twigs to create a home (a nest): a place of birth, replication, safety and warmth, a place to be fed. Their footprints are light on the environment around them.
Little birds sing with a beautiful and unique voice. Though we are often too busy and self-absorbed to notice the difference, they create a rich tapestry of sound. If we will stop our hectic chasing of self-aggrandizement and petty power, their lovely music will be our reward.
Consider the birds.
***
Recently we took a weekend away to a Lutheran retreat center. All the books in our room had been removed except for a tome on North American birds that was thicker than a King James Bible. It talked about how to watch birds. You’ve got to get low, be silent, adapt to one’s surroundings. It takes humility to watch birds, but you’ll see things most never do.
Bird watching takes hours of patience. It is a task for which I am not properly positioned.
Consider the contrast of where we live. Our street in Detroit has many large trees in which there are ample birds to watch. We are also directly adjacent to the Lodge Freeway – one of the busiest highways in the city. It is loud, fast, and transitory.
My mindset is often like the Lodge, I fly by my surroundings not noticing the unique people that surround me. Their mellifluous voices lost in the din of my journey elsewhere.
Let Zipporah not walk in these footsteps. May she be slowed enough to notice out of the way people that others overlook.
***
Finally, birds are defined by their sense of rhythm and timing.
Our manic culture wants to always be showing, always be going. Birds know there is a time to perch and a time to fly. They have a powerful internal clock. Without seeing the sun, they sense when dawn is imminent and begin to sing.
Birds correctly identify what season they’re in. They don’t continue mindlessly with a flurry of activity in winter. When the time is exactly right, they’ll migrate from one place to another. This decision is not cognitive, it’s a perceiving of the changes around them.
Let me tell you, this little bird has a mind of her own.
We were really hoping she’d be born on August 8th – the luckiest day of the year in China (8th month 8th day). The crew back in Shanghai would’ve gone nuts.
She politely declined to come out that day, and rather chose to be born on Friday the 13th.
Her disregard for societal norms led us to give her the middle name Haviland, named for Laura Smith Haviland, an American abolitionist, suffragette, social reformer, all around troublemaker, and Zipporah’s Great-Great Grandmother’s Great Grandmother[2].
On August 13th at 11:18pm Zipporah Haviland Fralick calmly entered the family of humanity. Her birth was unmedicated and completely natural. She was not worried. Her beautiful song filled the room, was appreciated by all around her, and she was right on time.
Zipporah
· Not a worrier
· Is free to fly, but defined by community
· Is courageous and resourceful
· Sings with a beautiful and unique voice
· Humble, able to be silent, adapts to one’s surrounding
· Slows down, notices others
· Has a strong sense of timing
· Lives a life of rhythms
REFERENCES
1. Bible, book of Matthew chapter 6
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Smith_Haviland