I took up birdwatching in seminary, a hobby to balance out the thousands of pages I would be reading and the hundreds of pages I would be writing. It was daunting and I needed something to balance my time and my brain. What I quickly noticed was that there was a whole world right in front of my face that I wasn’t aware of. I became aware of the fact that birds were more than just flight and feathers.
So, I followed the advice of my Peterson’s Bird guide and began educating myself on bird shapes and silhouettes; colors, textures, and markings; sounds, habits, and habitats. That way I could identify a bird in any number of ways, and that brought me joy. I could be in a retail shopping center or on a walk in the park and know what was flying by or calling out around me.
What became clear was that all birds had distinguishing characteristics that made them quite identifiable.
Take the picture below, for instance. I was at Holly Park earlier this week just after sunrise. I saw a dark figure swoop and my mind immediately started to going through the catalog (size, color, flight pattern). It was the size and color of a crow, but didn’t fly like a crow. I took my camera, adjusted the settings but realized I was in direct sunlight. Whatever picture I took (if I could get one) would be washed out and I would have a silhouette at best. Once I saw movement on a tree I knew it had to be a woodpecker of some kind, and with the earlier observations it might be a Pileated Woodpecker.
Bright red crest. Yup, Pileated. I snapped a picture and that red crest is the only thing that stuck out. I had my bird and I had one undeniable mark that proved it.
“If you love me, keep my commands.” —John 14.15 NIV
In a powerful section of Scripture where Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit, He urges His disciples to keep His commands. It will be a distinguishing mark of discipleship because those who keep His commands are those who follow Him. When we look for marks of discipleship, we look for obedience. A Christian is one who denies themselves and follows after Jesus. It’s not about us anymore; it is all about Jesus and obeying His commands.
Just like the glow of the red crest on the blackened Pileated Woodpecker, the Christian glows and reveals the living word of God by living out the written word of God. May we have the marks of discipleship today, and may others spot us and know exactly who and whose we are through our obedience!
—Pastor Whit