“Rrr-a-a-a-a—ak! Rrr-a-a-a-a-ak!” The machine-gun like call of the sandhill crane screeched across the meadow.
I stopped walking and looked over at the two very tall birds standing in the grassland. I walked over to the pasture fence and called back to them. “Rrr-a-a-a-a-ak! Rrr-a-a-a-a-ak!”
The female looked up and took a step toward me. The male flapped his wings and ran in front of the female to stop her, and yelled, “Rrr-a-a-a-a-ak!” back at me. I laughed and went back to the road.
This year when the cranes came back to nest, they saw me coming with my camera and walked away from me. As I came closer, they started purring, “Uuuuuh-oooooh! Uuuuuh-oooooh!” They flapped their giant wings and flew across the road over to another pasture.
There will be no pictures of the cranes for me this year! Maybe they had been around other humans who had not treated them well. Or maybe they were just shy. Though I meant no harm to them, they saw me as a danger and kept away.
The Bible, God’s love letter to us, tells us to stay from things and people who can be dangerous to our soul-hearts. The soul-heart is the invisible part of us that makes us who we are. It is the part of us that worships God.
How do we know when something is dangerous to our soul-hearts? If anything makes us doubt God or not want to spend time with God, it is a danger to our soul-hearts. It can be something simple, like cartoons. Maybe we would rather watch cartoons than pray or think about God or memorize the Bible. It can be some book or movie that teaches us things that are wrong.
Each one of us has to figure out what comes between us and God. When we find something that does, then we need to stay away from it. Our hearts should fly away like the cranes did when I came too close.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
What kind of things turn your heart away from spending time with God? Whatever they are, be like the sandhill cranes and fly away from those things! Spending time with God makes us strong and brave and good!
Until our next campfire, I’m sending you happy hugs!
Montana Gramma