Story by Joe Pisani

“EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS ON EARTH HAS SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS HIDDEN IN IT. EVERY VISIBLE BEING CARRIES THE STAMP OF THE ETERNAL …”   — C.F. Blumhardt

I begin my day the same way every morning. I roll out of bed, I wander downstairs to the kitchen, I make my first cup of coffee, I pour the dog a fresh bowl of water, and then I walk to the window and look outside to find my familiar friend, who’s always there — a house wren no larger than my thumb, perched on the railing, singing vigorously and more melodiously than an avian Ella Fitzgerald.

I can’t pull myself from his performance. He knows I’m there because occasionally he’ll turn my way, looking for some acknowledgement.

To be sure, it’s not just his marvelous birdsong that captivates me. It’s the realization that this is one of God’s smallest creatures, made with absolute perfection, to give us joy. He’s fulfilling his purpose by doing what God intended him to do.

If I were an unbeliever, this tiny creature could convince me of the existence of a master creator, more than the ontological arguments and the cosmological arguments of great theologians and philosophers.

St. Paul said evidence of God exists everywhere. All you have to do is open your eyes … and your mind. You don’t have to be a great intellectual because great intellectuals often miss what’s right in front of their noses.

Speaking to the Romans, a culture so impressed with themselves they never considered there could be a God infinitely greater than their mythological deities, St. Paul said: “What can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God, they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise, they became fools …”

Those words, written by Paul almost two millennia ago, are as meaningful today. “While claiming to be wise, they became fools…” is an epitaph for our times.

I have family and friends who are too smart for God, and sometimes I think they’re motivated more by the compulsion to appear fashionable and intellectual than by the genuine pursuit of truth.

Every time I read a Wikipedia biography of a celebrity, I scroll down to the details of their personal lives, which usually include their divorces, their politics, their controversies and their religious beliefs … or lack of. They often feel the need to tell the world they’re atheists or fallen away Christians too “smart” for faith.

Jesus, in Matthew 11:25-26, said: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”

What brings people puffed up with self-importance to this regrettable state? Certainly they want to be trendy, and let’s face it, faith isn’t trendy in a secular humanist society, especially places like Hollywood.

Unfortunately, many young people — fans and followers — take their lead from celebrities who fancy themselves free thinkers when they barely think at all.

Only grace will be able to move them from their mindset. They weren’t raised to look for God. However, it’s not all that hard. If you ask God to show you he exists, he’ll oblige, but you have to ask with an open heart and an open mind.

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “The world is charged with the glory of God.” There is evidence of his existence everywhere. And although the house wren is small, I consider it one of God’s greatest creations.

The “troglodytes (meaning hole dweller) aedon” from Ancient Greek for nightingale,” weigh as much as two quarters, but they aren’t afraid to confront much larger birds. A plain brown bird, the House Wren can be found over the entire Western Hemisphere.

The Cornell Lab of ornithology says: “Listen for its rush-and-jumble song in summer and you’ll find this species zipping through shrubs and low tree branches, snatching at insects. … House Wrens dart from perch to perch and sing almost nonstop. Their song can be hard to learn at first, because the notes are nondescript and variable, and because there’s simply so much of it — so loud and insistent — that it’s hard to believe such a small bird is making it.”

In the early evening, the tiny wren returns and starts singing again before flying off to be with his family. Pretty soon he’ll be leaving for Mexico for the winter. I’ll miss him.

I end my day with a simple prayer of thanksgiving for such a wonderful creation.