Narana Aboriginal Cultural Centre has welcomed six new spring arrivals – six emu chicks. Congress Resource Worker, Rev Vladimir Korotkov, said staff witnessed a role-reversal of parenting duties. “Our resident emu Polly laid 12 eggs and Oscar, the dad sat on the eggs for 55 days. Polly just got up and walked away from the eggs. But from Oscar, an amazing paternal commitment. Ancient life keeps evolving in this land if only we have eyes to see.”
Did you smile as you looked at that gorgeous black and white emu chick with proud dad looking on? I find myself smiling as I look out the kitchen window and watch the magpie parents teaching their young how to find worms among the grass.
I marvel at the size of the babies, only their grey feathers seeming to differentiate them from their striking parents. My daughter sent me a photo of a mother duck she walked past surrounded by 18 ducklings. Was she baby-sitting?
Sir David Attenborough is in Melbourne this month, sharing a lifetime of stories in two shows. He was asked by a radio presenter what was his all-time favourite animal? His response was both surprising and illuminating. He said a 12-month-old human child, because he is amazed by the exponential development of the human.
There is something reassuring about spring. New life, blossoms, longer days, sunshine warming the skin, changeable weather, cricket in the park.
It resonates with hope. It reminds us of the seasons, which have come and gone, year-in-year-out, back to the days when the First Peoples walked on this land and even before that.
Christians live in the knowledge of hope found in the God of eternity. In an article about the commercialisation of Christmas, Rev Rod Horsfield challenges us to consider anew what a counter-cultural Christ-mass might look like.
He reminds us that Jesus, born for us at Christmas, “is affirmed not by overwhelming force or by the triumph of the Christian tribe over others, but by the power of humble life defying the culture of death”.
It is easy to be overwhelmed and become fearful and without hope as we reflect on the state of our world. Rod reminds us that our hope “resides in open-handed living, in the cultivation of the way of the Prince of Peace, in hospitality for the stranger, in solidarity with the weak, and in a refusal to submit to the powers-that-be”.
As you enjoy the evidence of spring, how about pausing to reflect on a life lived in the knowledge of the hope of Jesus Christ.
By Penny Mulvey
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