Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, June 2, 2026
There’s plenty of confusion to go around, but let’s start with the birds first. What’s a warbler doing with a name like Louisiana Waterthrush anyway? I thought warblers were supposed to be up in trees warbling, not down on the beach bopping up and down. And to make matters worse, there’s another waterthrush that looks very much like the one from Louisiana and the two are hard to tell apart. Fortunately, the Louisiana one likes to hang out along the edges of flowing streams while his counterpart prefers still waters and stagnant bogs.
And on the human side of things? Our discussion will center around a man, or men, named Philip. Actually there are four men in the Bible with that name, but we’ll consider just two of them. There was Philip who was one of Christ’s twelve disciples. Remember, he was the one who asked Christ to show them the Father. He also calculated how much it would cost to feed the 5000 assembled to listen to what Christ had to say; a very down-to-earth guy.
The other Philip was one of the seven deacons appointed in the early church to assist with the distribution of goods – another practical guy. We see him again, hitchhiking, when he was picked up by a fellow from Ethiopia. Paul and others stayed at his house when passing through Caesarea later on in the story. And it was this same Philip who met with Simon the Sorcerer and introduced him to Christ. Philip’s example made a difference: “Even Simon himself became a believer and after his baptism attached himself closely to Philip. (Acts 8:13 J.B. Phillips New Testament) Philip practiced practical Christianity.
And is the waterthrush practical? If its nest, which is placed along the bank of a river, is disturbed early on, she will fly off. But after investing time in incubating the eggs, if a disturbance should occur, she will employ a distraction display to induce the intruder away from the nest. Seems pretty practical to me.