Articles
Cormorants
R E F L E C T I O N S
Thoughts on nature and the Christian faith
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"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." - Mt. 11:28
Cormorants are expert fishers. They can swim underwater to great depths and can swim fast enough with their webbed feet to capture and ensnare fish with their hooked beaks. They are truly underwater assassins. When viewed swimming on the surface of the water, about all that is visible are their long snake-like necks. If they were much larger, we would think we were observing the Loch Ness monster. Because they have little of the preen oil on their feathers that other waterfowl have, they have to spend a lot of time perched on whatever they can find drying out their feathers. In fact, about half of each day is spent resting in the sun, drying their feathers. I photographed these cormorants at a local lake, resting after a morning of underwater fishing. Such is the life of a cormorant, work, then rest, then work again. As humans, we can relate. All too often, work enslaves us and if we let it, defines us. Work is necessary, but so is rest. And many of us don't know how to rest. We think life must be filled with doing something, anything. Contemplation, meditation, and introspection are dying arts. It is in rest that God often speaks to our hearts. There are worse things you can do than to force yourself to stop and observe and allow yourself to be open to the hand of God in all that surrounds you. It is in Jesus where true rest is found. To cease from our doing and to rest in his doing may very well be the best and most important thing you can do today. If cormorants know enough to spend half of each day resting, maybe we could learn a thing or two from them. God made them dependent on rest. He made us that way also. And he gave us a far better place to rest than on a tree limb in a lake. - John
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