Lapwings of Martin Top

Cycling home, as ever, I witnessed a strange sight. A bird of prey was being attacked. I could not identify the victim which may have been a hawk, but its assailants were definitely lapwings. A week later and I was cycling back from preaching at Harrop Fold, when similar conduct on the part of lapwings was directed towards a ground-based pheasant. Up they rose, and then they swooped down on their quarry. Unlike hawks, pheasants are gormless creatures, but they will eat small birds, and a lapwing nest must have been in the vicinity. Likewise, the hapless hawk was mobbed by lapwing parents in a bid to expel it from their nest’s location. Far from being a band of thugs randomly terrorising the birdlife of East Lancashire, these are protective parents guarding their young from the dangerous and the stupid. A small, bony spur on their legs add a little extra persuasion to their swooping and diving. It is remarkable that such a modest bird should think so little of its own safety, even being prepared to attack larger predators. Yet as any parent knows, defence of one’s child is a higher priority than one’s own safety. Our parents could not and cannot defend us from all and sundry, for lack of power, knowledge or even will, but our heavenly Father will always defend and vindicate His children, even us.

Sleep well tonight. The great God who calls you will preserve you also, and has even more determination than the lapwing, with immeasurably more ability.

'I delivered thee when bound,

and, when wounded, healed thy wound;

sought thee wandering, set thee right,

turned thy darkness into light.

'Can a woman's tender care

cease towards the child she bare?

Yes, she may forgetful be,

yet will I remember thee.

'Mine is an unchanging love,

higher than the heights above,

deeper than the depths beneath,

free and faithful, strong as death.

-Wm Cowper.

Photo credit: Pixabay