Hello friends,
There are few Providence sights more iconic than the Superman Building.
And perched high on top of the Superman Building right now is a peregrine falcon nesting box, installed by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island. The Audubon maintains a live feed of the box where, right now, three three-week-old nestlings, also called eyases, are taking their first steps. I’ve enjoyed watching; thanks Keith for the recommendation!
One of the questions people ask about the baby birds is “where are the parents?” Audubon says the eyases “are now too big for the adults to cover with their bodies . . . they will huddle together until their adult feathers come in . . . it is normal for the parents of the eyases to be absent.”
In the Christian calendar, we are soon approaching the remembrance of Jesus’s ascension to heaven when “he was taken up into a cloud while the apostles were watching, and they could no longer see him” (Acts 1:9).
Between the ascension (May 29) and before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (June 8), we will experience a gap. Like the baby falcons atop the Superman Building, we will be in a time of separation: after nesting and before taking flight.
What spiritual feathers do we need to grow to keep us warm in Jesus’s absence? Perhaps we are getting ready to grow into a new animal of faith?
Traveling together,
Sam