A Lenten Devotion by Ricky Kliem
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all.
Cecil Alexander
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:24-25
It was a bitter winter day on Moosehead Lake in northern Mane with gusts of wind chasing swirls of snow across the frozen surface. My oldest son was exploring the lake on a snowmobile when he spotted a bird struggling to free its webbed feet from the ice near the shore of Moose Island. Frightened by the roar of the machine, the bird broke free but was unable to fly, scrambling to get away, slipping and sliding along the frozen surface. My son herded the bird with the early season ice cracking beneath him all the way to the rocky shore in front of our camp. It took refuge in between the piled-up snow and the warmer rocky shore where the melting had left a hollow tunnel. Breathless, my son rushed in and persuaded me to help the hapless bird.
After catching it, I cradled the flapping bird in my arms and carried it up to our warm kitchen where I then sat on the floor restraining the struggling bird from flopping around and hurting itself. My son brought in the water-filled bucket of live bait fish called smelt that we were using for ice fishing. I popped the fish into the greedy open beak as the starved merganser gobbled them down, both ends going at once. Afterwards the bird, now named Gertrude, was safely confined inside a large antique wicker cat carrier to spend the night.
The next morning phone calls were made to the Maine State Fish and Game department. We were referred to Wildlife Rescue in Augusta. The now peaceful merganser with filled tummy was transported to this specialized facility where we entrusted our hapless feathered friend for care.
After several bitter and frozen winter months spring arrived and we received a triumphant phone call informing us of the release of the now healthy and thriving merganser up into the welcoming skies of coastal Maine. We all smiled at the thought of our feathered friend Gertrude flying freely and ready for all that life had to offer.
Thank you, God, for the goodness of creation, in which we can help each other. Amen