the woodpecker and me

I believe in God. I pretty much always have. Through my youth, I haven't always followed Him faithfully, but I never really stopped believing. I have lots of reasons to believe. Here's just one.

Once I lived in a house where I rented the bottom floor from a friend. There was a solarium outside my apartment.

One day I heard strange noises: thumping, thwacking, rustling, fluttering — really weird. I poked my head in the sun room to find a pretty large flicker bumping around. I tried to scare it out an open door; I tried to push it the right direction with a broom; nothing was working. After about 15 minutes, the woodpecker was getting more frantic and more injured by the minute. I slipped back into my apartment and anguished over the fate of this imprisoned fowl.

Probably I should have started earlier, but I began to pray — for a dumb bird.

"God, please help this bird get out of here... I can't fix this... I need Your help... I need help now."

I'm not into hyper-spiritual over-the-top religion. "Name it and claim it" seems like a pretty shallow to me. But there is something about praying with faith... believing... expecting God to move.

"God, send Animal Control. I need the dog catcher here now."

I stepped out of the house and up to the road. I lived on a dead end, two houses from the end of the road. I saw maybe two or three cars drive by any given week. But I expected God to come through, and up drove the county animal control truck.

Okay, right on time. Thanks, God!

So I make the international gesture for "roll down your window."

"Wow, am I glad to see you! I need help. I gotta woodpecker problem," I blurted out.

"Sorry, we don't do birds."

"Wha? Whad'ya mean you don't do birds? The truck says animal control," I returned.

"We only do dogs and cats," he quickly replied.

"But you don't understand, I prayed... God sent you..." The window started to slowly roll up. I realized this argument was going nowhere.

"Okay, okay. Can you just tell me what I can do?" I asked. "I gotta woodpecker in my sun room, and he's gonna die from hitting the glass."

"Get a blanket and throw it over him."

"Okay, got it. Thanks."

So a grab a blanket, trap the bird and set him free. Problem solved... for about an hour.

The flicker came back within a few hours. No problem. Blanket, catch, set free.

And then again, he's back. By now I am just irritated. I grab this guy and look right into his face — right into his eyes. I am relating with, I am connected to this... stupid BIRD! As I carry him out, I am ranting, "Stay OUT! You're just killing yourself. What if I''m not around and you're stuck in there for hours?" I manage to either talk some sense into him or freak him out. He didn't come back. My landlord friend got his room patched up eventually, so the problem was fixed forever.

I never saw a dog catcher in my neighborhood before that day or since that day. I lived there for years. Some people say there's no evidence of a creator. I know He is real. He has been there for me when I need Him.

Meanwhile, I learned a few things that day.

First, always pray with belief — expect God to move. God spoke the world into existence. You don't have any problems that He can't handle. No need is too small or too big. You're not wasting God's time with your trivial needs. He wants us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us.

Second, when you are looking to help the helpless, God really digs that.

Sometimes I'm really just stupid woodpecker too. I can slam into barriers, get rescued, only to repeat the process over. Yet, God is taking care of me, and sometimes the people who are the most irritating or are the most irritated at me are the ones I should listen to.

Finally, don't always expect to get exactly what you're asking for. You may get something that is ultimately better. I could have just pointed the dog catcher at the problem and not even watched him get the job done. But I wouldn't have learned how to deal with it myself.