The wheat fields have been harvested. Ground feeders are gleaning the remnants. Thus I saw a male Ring-necked Pheasant foraging in the north field. A few hundred feet further down the road a flock of young Pheasants rose up from the prairie in flight, the hen squawking warning to them and threat to me. Yet further down the road a mother Quail took flight westward. Seconds later her covey of young took flight eastward. She was clearly trying to lead me away from her young. On my way back to the house two Plovers circled overhead, howling at my dangerous presence to their young. Plovers build their nests on the ground. If you approach the nest the adults will flop around on the ground making all kinds of noise as if they are injured. They are hoping that the menacing intruder will attack them and neglect the nest of young. It reminds me of a time when I was hiking the Appalachian Trail. A Grouse hen with a brood of young was actually scurrying ahead of me on the trail. The mother, apparently thinking that I was too close, turned around and raised her wings in attack formation. She let loose a horrible yet and charged me.
It is amazing what animals will do to protect their young and save them from danger. I remember a young woman who lived close to my church in Florida. She was very poor. It was the dead of winter and very cold. She had an electric heater and her neighbors allowed her to run an extension cord from their house to her's to power the heater. She placed the heater next to her baby's crib. During the night a blanket fell from the crib onto the heater. The mother smelled the smoke, heard the cry of her child, and rushed into the baby's room. The entire crib was engulfed in flame. The mother reached in with both arms and snatched up the burning pyre that was her child. Sadly, the baby died. The mother was severely burned from her fingertips to her shoulders.
The Psalmist pleads, "hide me in the shadow of your wings." (Psalm 17: 8b) The way of Pheasants, Quail, Plover, Grouse, and Mothers had taught the poet something of the nature of love and care for the future. We may hope for such protection from God. May we hope for such safekeeping from one another? My, what a different world that might be.

The Feast of Thomas More, 2009