I Heard a Cardinal Call My Name by Peter A. Black

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Earlier this week I heard a cardinal call my name – at least, I thought it was a cardinal. I looked all around and peered up into the trees, but I couldn’t spot it. And yet, the sweetly haunting, yet distinct Pe-ter, pe-ter, pe-ter sounded out.  

A copy of Margaret Craven’s 1960s novel I Heard the Owl Call My Name sat on my library shelves for decades. A while back I finally began to read it. I thought of it the moment I heard that Pe-ter, pe-ter, pe-ter.

It’s a story of a young Anglican vicar, Mark Brian, whose bishop sent him to serve a small First Nations community in BC, called Kingcome. The bishop knew that Mark was terminally ill, but that fact wasn’t disclosed to the young fellow. He fitted in well with the ‘Kwakiutl’ people. They accepted him as one of theirs, and he accepted them as family and the village as his home.

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The Kwakiutl people believed that when a person heard the owl call their name, they would soon die. One day Mark Brian heard the owl call his name. Not long afterwards he was in his boat near to land when a landslide completely engulfed his small craft and he was killed.

Now, let’s connect with a touching account in the Bible. Jesus had done wonders for Mary Magdalene in healing her ruined, broken life. Very early on that historic morning of His resurrection from the dead, she stood weeping in the garden near the tomb where He had been buried. Not knowing at that point that Jesus had risen, she was evidently bewildered by the empty tomb, and that increased the anguish of her grief-stricken heart.

We read: “. . . she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it

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was Jesus. . . . [He] said ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher).”*

She instantly recognized His voice in the calling of her name. It jolted her out of grief and no doubt filled her with inexpressible joy. He then instructed her to go and share the good news with His “brothers.” So she hurried off to tell the disciples. Three years or so before this He’d personally called each of His disciples to follow Him.

Jesus still calls, but seldom with an audible voice; calls in language of the heart. It’s a call to life. I was just a grade-school kid when I ‘heard’ and responded to that call to trust in Him. I reaffirmed it in my teens and also many times since.

I’m glad Jesus called my name. Glad too, that the song of a little bird I couldn’t even see reminded me of these things and warmed my heart with its song.
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*Abbrev. from John 20:11-16  NIV.
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Peter is a retired pastor – well, sort of retired – as he is currently engaged as an associate volunteer pastor. He lives in Southwestern Ontario with his wife, May, and writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column and occasional magazine articles. Peter is author of two books: "Parables from the Pond" (Word Alive Press) and "Raise Your Gaze . . . Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart" (Angel Hope Publishing). He and May are also engaged in leading nursing home / residential chapel services, pulpit supply and music. ~+~

Nature's 'Free' Gifts (Peter Black)

It’s wonderful that nature offers so many free gifts, for instance, the rapturous sight of a cardinal’s scarlet plumage and the enchanting musicality of his sweet song to his mate. Necessary to our experiencing and enjoying such things are the faculties of vision and hearing and the mental capability of appreciating them.

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Too numerous to mention, even in a single day, nature’s free gifts surround us and enrich our lives. Several weeks ago my wife and I set out on what we expected to be a brief walk along a local trail. Several days before, we noted that the wayside brambles were producing a fair crop of berries, although most were far from ripe – green, with some turning red.

However, nature surprised us during that next walk through the glen, for we spotted a patch just ripe for the picking. We cut our walk even shorter and took to picking the gleaming black morsels, instead. They’d ripened rapidly and weren’t yet picked over by other blackberry lovers. May had a plastic bag handy, so we got busy. I felt like a kid again and recalled the bountiful wild blackberry-picking days of my childhood in England and Scotland.

 

Wild berries are nature’s free gifts. Free to the birds and free to those of us who take the time to pick them. But were they really free? We paid the price in berry-stained clothes, mosquito bites and thorn pricks, and scratched-up legs, because we hadn’t dressed suitably for the job, neither had we applied insect repellent.

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That experience kick-started me into ruminating about nature’s free gifts in the wider sense – the air we breathe, the water we drink, among countless others. Although humans can produce modest amounts of water through several chemical processes (such as through the combustion of hydrocarbons and condensing the moisture generated) we don’t actually create this essential element.

However, we are realizing more and more that there’s a price to be exacted for failing to take steps to protect nature's benefits from the environmental pollution that we’ve generated. It also costs to protect ourselves directly from pollution and its consequences.

For example, nature’s bountiful food from river, lake and sea has been there for the human taking for millennia. But, as we now know, large-scale inadequately managed resources and over-fishing have reduced stocks in many areas. Also, chemical contamination from industrial effluent discharged into sewers and rivers and the toxins generated from human activity, contained in soil run-off, eventually find their way into the flesh of fish and marine life. These can potentially cause sickness or disease in both animals and humans who consume them.

We did nothing to create the great reservoirs of crude oil underneath the ocean bed or

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underground, yet its extraction and refining incurs great cost. Gold, silver and gem mining are costly businesses, too, although they offer great rewards.

At the other end of the scale, in the classical song, the boy who plucked the pretty “rose so red, in the forest growing,” paid a price with a painful prick and a bloody finger. Enough said, suffice it to say that nature’s free gifts do have a cost at one point or another.

God paid the price of providing the remedy for the pollution of our sins and shortcomings, in giving His Son Jesus Christ up to the horrific death on the cross of crucifixion. While many people scoff at this, there are yet others who, embracing the message and receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour, enjoy a restored relationship with the Almighty.

I’m grateful for such a relationship with God and the profound sense of belonging, with grace and peace, that I’ve received. These are His free love gifts to us. Why would anyone refuse them?

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The above piece was adapted from an article in Black's weekly column, P-Pep! published in The Watford Guide-Advocate, July 16, 2015.

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Peter's second book is a compilation of inspirational articles on a variety of themes from his weekly column. These are interspersed with brief expressions intended to encourage. Ebook edition is now available through Amazon.

 

ISBN: 978-0-9920074-2-3 (Angel Hope Publishing)

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Peter's first book: “Parables from the Pond” – a children's / family book (mildly educational, inspirational in orientation, character reinforcing). Finalist – Word Alive Press. ISBN: 1897373-21-X. The book has found a place in various settings with a readership ranging from kids to senior adults.
Black's inspirational column, P-Pep! appears weekly in The Guide-Advocate (of Southwestern Ontario). His articles have appeared in 50 Plus Contact and testimony, and several newspapers in Ontario.

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