Lost No More

The grins on the faces of the birders coming off the boat told me that success was the sighting of the day.

Did you see the bird?, I inquired, knowing the answer beforehand.

Oh yeah!

Beautiful bird!

The ride is worth the money!

I'd be riding the boat all right, along with 16 participants.

But today's cruisers were unaware that this tour was a cruise for lost souls.

One day earlier
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I had no idea why my boss was calling, but I figured answering your boss' call is a form of job security.

"Hi". My boss intoned. "Was there a Brown Booby reported last week?" Brown Booby is a type of seabird normally seen from the waters of Central America and points south.

"There was" I affirmed.

"Well, there's one sitting on a channel marker out in the sound right now!" The excitement could hardly have been contained.

The silence I responded with was perfectly natural after such a stunning revelation.
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So there we were, the next day, approaching this wayward bird that had set the birding community ablaze. Every form of instant communication among birders was chock full of messages concerning the whereabouts of this gawky avi-fauna: the Brown Booby.

If the name of this bird sounds a touch silly to you, know that you're in good company.

The original discoverers of this species, a group of French Sailors, found the bird doing its mating display; one look at the feet is enough to tell you that this particular dance is rather gawky and uncoordinated. Hence, they gave this weird creature a fitting name.

Or, as my boss pointed out, there's a lot of French Sailors having a lot of good laughs every time we find one of these birds.

Arms that are ready to shepherd the lost safely home.

The bird was a feathered dichotomy: at once gawky and graceful, clumsy and sophisticated. Subtly stunning, yet clearly awkward.

As referenced earlier, the Brown Booby is normally found in the warm waters off of Mexico and Puerto Rico. Why it likes sitting on a channel marker outside of Wildwood, New Jersey, is anyone's guess.

Some suggest that a strong, southerly wind pushed the bird towards the Garden State.

Others say it might have been an odd dispersal, as other sightings of this species had been noted along the Eastern Seaboard.

No matter how it got here, it was lost. But not alone.

Since it had been found three days earlier, the birding community had been fervently seeking views of this vagrant. The longest a Booby has stuck around is a day and a half in our area, and he proved uncooperative. This one seemed to have tape on its feet, a perfect specimen for lengthy looks.

The bird was lost, but it could never be described as isolated. It had too many people looking for it.

Similar to the child of God. With all the happenings in the world, it's easy to slip into despair and feel lost. At times, it seems the current of regret and doubt sweep us away into the dark caverns of our minds.

At times, it feels as if all is lost

But, we have a message from the Father, a Father stronger than our feelings. The message says that although the difficulties of life may cause us to question our son-ship, He has us carved into His hands.

The message says that although the journey home is difficult and often frightening, He has provided a light for our feet.

The message says He came to seek and save the lost. A promise to take to the bank next time loneliness and despair creep in; He's out there looking for us, waiting to run to us with open arms.

Arms that are ready to shepherd the lost safely home.

I am sharing this with Hear It On Sunday, Use It On Monday.