On Seeing a Grackle in the Pond-shore Cattails

Dr. James J. S. Johnson

This shall be written for the generation to come; and the people who shall be created shall praise the LORD.

(Psalm 102:18)

Last weekend, I drove past a familiar Texas pond, where 11 years ago I saw a “common” black-feathered bird (i.e., Quiscalus mexicanus = Great-tailed Grackle, to be exact), and was then jolted by an “uncommon” (and somewhat-scary) realization – God could have made me a grackle! 

Days later, during the summer of AD2012, I reported this important thought (and attitude fo gratitude) within an article [“Grackles and Gratitude”, ACTS & FACTS, 41(7):8-10 July 2012), posted at www.icr.org/article/grackles-gratitude ] about how uniquely and personally each one of us is, created by the Lord Jesus Christ, as exactly the specific individual that each one of us is. 

When was the last time that you saw a bird—perhaps a grackle or a pigeon—and shuddered with the scary realization: That could have been me! Maybe you have never thought about a grackle that way. Yet it is true—God did not need to make us just as we are. He had many other options. God could have created each of us as a bird, a butterfly, or a basalt rock. God could have made you or me a uranium-bearing rock, a nudibranch, an ice worm, a quince fruit, an ultraviolet ray, or an egret. [Notice the acrostic in the previous sentence: U.N.I.Q.U.E.!]

Yet, He deliberately chose otherwise. He chose to make us one-of-a-kind humans. What a fearful and wonderful reality!…

Surely we should thank Christ for being our very personal Creator. So the next time you see a grackle, think thankfully for a moment, “That could have been me!” And be grateful to your Creator, who made you a unique, one-of-a-kind creation.

[Quoting JJSJ’s “Of Grackles and Gratitude”)

So, what an echo from yesteryear it was, last weekend, when I spied another “common” grackle (actually a Great-tailed Grackle, which is common in Denton County, Texas), ambling about the littoral cattails of that same pond that I drove by more than a decade ago. 

Whew!  What a journey the past 11 years have been, as I quickly recall and reconsider (and gratefully appreciate) God’s many personal and providential blessings unto me – including His kind and caring blessings that continue to make me the individual man I am – along with the many other blessings of His redemptive and always-sufficient grace, over those 11 years since that important icterid-aided insight. 

Plus, the best is yet to come (Luke 10:20)! So, thinking of Psalm 102:18, I close this nostalgic memoir with a limerick:

AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE, ON SEEING A GRACKLE IN THE CATTAILS

Some troubles, in life, we must tackle,

Threatening us, with harm, like a jackal;

     Yet life, itself, we can face,

     Since life, itself, is God’s grace —

Each of us, God could’ve made, a grackle!