The Great Migration

Here in SE Michigan, the peak of the Spring bird migration is now past, as a vast majority of the migrants have already arrived and/or are continuing their journey north. As someone who took up birding rather recently, it's an exciting time of year that is still new to me! While my activity is quite casual, as my time to bird is not always readily available, I still love getting out when I can!

After posting this picture (of a migrating Blackpoll Warbler) a friend commented that it is a bittersweet moment. They are one of the last to arrive, and while exciting to find them, it means that the Spring migration will now soon wane ...

A while later, this comment came back to me, but on a much different level ...

As Christians, what about our migration? Our pilgrimage?

I know I'm taking a bit of liberty here with how a migration works, but how about us? Have we flocked to Christ, with all excitement and beauty, but now it all ... wanes? Have we come ... but then left?

Soon after though, I reflected more about how God's people in the Old Testament made pilgrimages. In fact, multiple trips a year were made to Jerusalem to worship, celebrate, and remember.

More importantly however is to realize that God didn't need us to do it ...

     .... we were the ones that needed it.

Oh how our heart wanders and continues to take flight away from Him. May we not get discouraged as we find that we have migrated away from His presence, but may we simply be reminded and let our heart be pulled back to Him. Much like some migrations can be traced to DNA, we too I feel have been created with a distinct and natural understanding of our true Home ...

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis

I pray we are all called to continually make a pilgrimage back to His presence, no matter how far or how long we have wandered ...

His,

~Matthew