The Gift of the Red Bird

This was not a book to be studied; it was an experience to be enjoyed. Paula D’Arcy brought me into her life with all its pain and victory. I was so engulfed in her world that I could not help but listen to what she had to say. If she would have started with her wilderness experience I would have been skeptical and guarded. Instead, by the time she was talking to the animals I was willing to believe any of her experiences. Her honesty and vulnerability come out on paper with a heart gripping grace. I took a journey in my own life as I walked with her through this book.
On page 15 she said, “How unexpected to discover that the mind only supplied knowledge about God.” It would be an under statement to say that I primarily seek God through my mind. This phrase acted for me as a frame work from which to understand D’Arcy’s perspective and agenda in the book. At this point I was reminded of other authors who have used the phrase, “Knowing about God is not knowing God.”

When her husband and daughter died I felt drawn into the crash. Just as she never saw it coming, and her life changed in the blink of an eye, so did the tone of her book. Her grappling for an authentic relationship with God was raw, real, and inspiring. I longed for her to connect with God, and to find comfort. Then just as she finds God, a turning point takes place in their relationship. God will not allow her to believe anything is more important than their relationship. In a sense I believe God needs her to know that she cannot use or control him. She wants a natural birth more than she wants the will of God. In fact, she makes God the lord of her life in that moment before her baby is born. I have wrestled with God in similar fashion. I desired all the benefits of a relationship with him, but when he asked me to put him first above all else I ran. However, I got tired of running and wrestling, and I thank God that he was persistent.

D’Arcy’s next section took dead aim at the core of my greatest weakness. She laid bare the reality that ministry can drive people far away from the God they serve. Only after months in bed does she realize that what she has been missing out in the world is not what is most important. She realizes that many things run her life before God can even get a word in edge wise. She learns in those months to start listening to God in her surroundings. The noise of the world is so loud and it makes us so deaf that it took months before she even realized what she had been missing. This section cut me to the core and made me take a long look at my priorities and my schedule. God has his scheduled time each day, but it is always on my terms. I realized how impoverished I make my life by not keeping my eyes and ears open to what God is doing and saying.

The “Quest” as D’Arcy calls it was the most vivid and enchanting section of her book. In a way I felt all her work was building towards this climax. She is about to have an encounter with the living God on his terms; and all alone. I found it interesting that she had so many chances to cut corners and to turn back, but she felt compelled by God to finish her quest. I identified with her fasting experience. I have fasted for 3 days before and it is always during the first day that I want to give up. By the second day I have found peace of mind, body, and soul. As she struggled with her aloneness on page 96 I though of my own insecurity. I enjoy being alone and can’t remember the last time I was bored. However, I tried to put myself in her shoes and I wondered if I would feel the same loneliness. I considered weather I had ever put myself in a place where it was just God and I with no escape. At first I relished in the idea, but as I read on I realized it would be a time of fear a trembling. With no where to hide I would be forced to face exactly who I am and who I try to be.

The Gift of the Red Bird ended for me with a challenge to live closer to God and his creation. In a sense I felt like someone had awoken me from a deep slumber. It has been almost a month since I read the book. I wish I could say I have applied everything I learned, but I have changed in small ways. I have started smelling my food before I eat it. I have started noticing the birds in our neighbor hood. I have embraced the fall season during my jogs around the block. Each time I do these things I am asking for God to make himself known to me. I desire to be a person who realizes that they are apart of God creation, and not the only part that God can speak through.