Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, May 4, 2025
I’m fond of this little duck that we pass by a couple of times a day on the path to our neighborhood trail – at least it looks like a duck to me, with fluffs of greenery for wings. He makes me smile.
He started my musing on the word “duck.” One dictionary definition, “to lower the head or body suddenly: dodge,” is exactly what my husband needs to do on this part of our walk. If he isn’t on the alert, he’s been known to hit his head on an overhanging branch, or have his hat knocked off. He needs to duck!
But I’m glad he doesn’t resemble another definition of the word, “to evade a duty, question, or responsibility.” In all our years together, I haven’t seen him try to “duck out” of something, to evade or avoid what he needs to do.
Even though I usually go to bed feeling serene and thankful for the day I’ve experienced, sometimes I wake up with “day dread.” That may be wording it a bit strongly, but I often feel the need to brace for the day and the challenges it may bring me.
Knowing this melancholy tendency, many years ago I bought a large square sign that advises, in large letters, to “WAKE UP EVERY MORNING AS IF SOMETHING WONDERFUL IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.” I positioned this sign on a bookshelf so that I see it last thing when I go to bed every night and first thing when I wake up every morning. And before I swing my legs out of bed and put feet to floor, I pray for that attitude of cheerful anticipation. I don’t want to succumb to the habit of wanting to “duck the day.”
If there was anyone who had reason to cower in a corner rather than stride out with confidence into the day, it was Jesus. I believe He moved serenely, day after day, from the cradle to the cross, not because He was a Superman or Supergod, but because He habitually spent enough time with His Father God to gain daily divine strength and wisdom and power and love to fit Him for every challenge the devil would throw at Him.
We see Him duck and dodge, evade and avoid, the devil’s relentless temptations to throw Him off track, and in doing so He never ducked His chosen mission to show us what God was truly like, and to die so that we could choose to live forever.
As we move out into this brand-new week, this gives us hope, not only for heaven ahead, but for His protection and provision for each day until He comes.