‘Just abiding’: a gentle inviting presence

For many years we have walked past the wetlands fed by the Painkalac Creek, at Airey’s Inlet. Very often we see this magnificent bird, sometimes in a tree but more often standing still in the water.

The Great Egret is a distinctive bird, largest of the egrets in Australia. It commonly lives with cormorants too, which is the case in our area. It is tall, white, and very graceful.

What is so interesting is the stillness of this lovely bird. It no doubt catches fish, and spends time watching and waiting.
But equally I think it spends a lot of time just being there.

When I was a student, many years ago, I went to a show presented by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, English comedians. They did a skit recounting the gospel story of the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds,  using the language of the Kings James version of the Bible. When stating that the shepherds were ‘abiding in the fields’, one actor asked the other, ‘What were they doing in the fields?’ and the response was, ‘Just abiding. Just abiding.’

I have long remembered and reflected on that answer. ‘Just abiding.’

This lovely bird is ‘just abiding’ and it provides us with an invitation also to live with such serenity. We do not create ourselves, nor do we control the world in which we live, despite our many efforts to do so. We live subject to the realities of the world around us, with its storms and fires, its provision and plenitude. There is grace in this bird and it is a sign to us of the grace of all life. May we learn to live in that grace.