My subject? Crows. Surprised? I’ve never really made much mention of animals in scripture before, but suddenly, I’m interested. This particular bird is one that I’ve held a long fascination for. You know this bird scripturally as a raven.

Common Ravens are omnivorous and highly opportunistic: their diet may vary widely with location, season and serendipity.

In no land are they more numerous than in Palestine. In general appearance it resembles the crow, but is much larger, being almost two feet long, of a glossy black, with whiskers around the beak, and rather stiff-pointed neck feathers. A bird exhibiting as much intelligence as any, and of a saucy, impudent disposition, it has been an object of interest from the beginning.

It has been able to speak sentences of a few words when carefully taught, and by its uncanny acts has made itself a bird surrounded by superstition, myth, fable, and is connected with the religious rites of many nations. It is partially a carrion feeder, if offal or bodies are fresh; it also eats the young of other birds and very small animals and seeds, berries and fruit, having as varied a diet as any bird. It is noisy, with a loud, rough, emphatic cry, and its young are clamorous at feeding time.

A few years ago at the college, I watched from my car as a crow sat on top of a trash bin. He observed his surroundings to ensure no one was coming, then hopped down into the opening of the can, which was pretty overloaded with garbage. He picked through a few things and flew out with a ketchup packet in his beak.

It was a sealed packet, but this guy was already a pro with this sort of packaging. He again sat on the top of the can to check his surroundings, then flew down to the ground, put the packet under his feet, and proceeded to peck at the plastic packaging until he had pecked a hole into it. Then he stuck his beak inside and took a sampling of ketchup out, and lifted his head to ingest it.

Across its range in the northern hemisphere, and throughout human history, the Common Raven has been a powerful symbol and a popular subject of mythology and folklore.

In many post-conversion Western traditions, ravens have long been considered to be birds of ill omen, in part because of the negative symbolism of their all-black plumage and eating of carrion. In Sweden, ravens are known as the ghosts of murdered people, and in Germany as the souls of the damned. In Danish folklore, a Valravn that ate a king’s heart gained human knowledge, could perform great malicious acts, could lead people astray, had superhuman powers, and were “terrible animals”.

Many indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and northeast Asia revered it as a god. In Tlingit and Haida cultures, Raven was both a Trickster and Creator god. Related beliefs are widespread among the peoples of Siberia and northeast Asia. The Kamchatka peninsula, for example, was supposed to have been created by the raven god Kutkh.

In Irish mythology, the goddess Morrígan alighted on the hero Cú Chulainn’s shoulder in the form of a raven after his death.

In Welsh mythology they were associated with the Welsh god Bran the Blessed, whose name translates to “raven.” According to the Mabinogion, Bran’s head was buried in the White Hill of London as a talisman against invasion.

A legend developed that England would not fall to a foreign invader so long as there were ravens at the Tower of London; although the official Tower of London historian, Geoff Parnell, believes that this is actually a romantic Victorian invention. In fact, the Tower has lacked ravens for long periods in the past; however, the government now maintains several birds on the grounds of the Tower.

As in traditional mythology and folklore, the Common Raven features frequently in more modern writings such as the works of William Shakespeare, and, perhaps most famously, in the poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. Ravens have appeared in the works of Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, Stephen King, and Joan Aiken among others.

It is interesting to me, that this same bird that is so ill thought of, is used by God several times in the scriptures.

We first see the raven used by Noah as the first sent out to check the levels of the water after the flood.

Gen 8:5  And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth [month], on the first [day] of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

It’s interesting that this overflow of water decreased continually until specifically the tenth month. When I looked up tenth here, it indicated tithe. It wasn’t until the tenth month that one could see the tops, or see above the water. It’s an interesting analogy coinciding with the tithe, in that they couldn’t begin to see their way clear until after a symbolic tithe.

It was little things that Nicodemus witnessed over a period of time, that got him thinking and rethinking everything he had ever heard or learned. The reason he was able to believe; the reason Jesus got through to Him, was because apparently, he didn’t have an issue with pride. He didn’t think that his knowledge base was the end all, or that he knew everything about everything. He was still open and seeking answers. It wasn’t that he wasn’t reading the word and believing it. That wasn’t it at all. He believed the word, yet something was missing.

It was the process that built his faith. It was the seemingly small incidents and little changes. God moved in the environment around him, strategically putting each piece of the puzzle in place at a preset, predestinated time, so that at each interval, his eyes would be opened just a little bit more, and he would see. This is why scripture says we have to walk with God daily, because if we give up and stop communicating with Him, the “process” stops. Our growth stops, and we start repeating errors; repeating past mistakes that we already kicked ourselves in the can for.

Luk 9:23    And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

That is a three step process.
Deny yourself-this is the tough one. In a self-centered, me first world, this is a fight.
Take up your cross daily-this one means submit. Sometimes submitting can be as burdensome as carrying that heavy wooden cross was, especially if you have issues with the person you have to submit to, or the situation has kicked you in the dirt. This one is a battle with your pride.
Follow Me-this one is about who you listen to. It’s about your source. This one is about hold on and don’t let go. You wanna talk about codependance? It’s encouraged here.

“If you die daily, death eventually will no longer have it’s sting.”

The above quote came from another pastor in my church. I thought the question he asked was very valid. If God sent you on a detour from the path you thought your life was on, would you follow Him? And furthermore, would you follow Him into darkness? Would you follow Him into a downpour?

“It’s about God’s purposes in his processes. He won’t subvert them to make things convenient and quick. You have to be willing to submit to his cleansing process.”

“It’s a piercing thing to recognize the gutters God will crawl through with you because He loves you.”

“Our wounds matter to God. He saves our tears because it matters to Him.”

“Admit and submit the thoughts I have issues with. It makes God happy when you bring your dirt to Him so He can clean you up.”

(A reference to Namaan) “Persevere in the provision of God. Keep dunking until it is resolved.”

Sy Rogers

It’s only by submitting to the process that you find whatever you thought you lost. Usually, what you find is far better than what you allegedly lost. The thing about gain and loss is…first of all, what you consider a loss is not always a loss. It’s a perspective issue. It could simply be time for that thing, or that phase of your life to move on. Sometimes its simply a growth thing.

Secondly, are you blocking your blessing because you are clinging (mentally) to something or someone you lost? We have to learn to let people go. It’s like that saying about the birds, at least, I always thought it was about birds.  “If you love something/someone set them free. If they come back they are yours, but if they don’t, they were never yours to begin with.” Something like that. In other words, don’t resist another’s need to check out.

The point is, nothing is permanent in this life, or on this earth, so what are you clinging to? The only definite is Christ. I have come to recognize that relationships are temporal at best. I’ve stopped allowing myself to be so dependent on a relationship that I’m devastated when it ends. The only relationship that I should be that dependent on is with Christ.

With everyone else, I see a time and a season, and I no longer expect that the season will never end. I try to view it as a blessing for a set period of time, but whenever they go, it’s time for a new blessing. This is because I’ve been moved into a different phase of growth, and some people can hold me back. I’m in a different cube within the cube, or, different atom on the string. (People who read me regularly will understand this reference, but for those who just got here, go back a few posts, and it will make sense. It’s a level issue. )

“Most people are living, on their way to dying. Christians are dying on their way to living.”

“This world can add years to your life. Jesus adds life to your years.”

How do you trust God? You don’t fight the process. You walk with Him daily and you give Him your tears and the issues that you cannot reckon, and allow Him the time to reconcile it for you. This will grow your faith. You will learn, over time, to trust Him in everything.

You know that saying, “When God closes a door, He opens a window?” Well, it doesn’t indicate that He would open up the same thing again. It doesn’t even indicate that the window that would get opened would be attached to the same house. Let me free you up a second. The door and the window could be in two totally different arenas of your life, and totally unrelated. He may have to shut down one, in order to open the other, so resistance is futile as the borg say.

I can tell you that because of something that happened recently; something totally unrelated to the two issues I had, but because of it, I now have faith again in those two issues. A door was opened to me, and this was another something that I had tried and had pretty much given up on due to frustration concerning my own efforts. Basically, I had been spinning my wheels in the mud, and had decided to let it go.