Photo ©2024 by Carolyn Howson
Commentary ©2024 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
We were driving through an old cemetery in Montana, our heads out the window, and pointed towards the top of the trees when the command to “Stop!” was issued. I had seen nothing, but my wife sitting on the passenger’s side had seen something she felt was worth stopping for. Since this bird photography thing is my interest and not hers, she was only seeking to be helpful, and perhaps speed up the process of finding desirable lodging for the night. We were looking for a Merlin nest that had been reported in this town which resulted in our inching through the grave sites. Once binoculars were put on the subject it was clear it was not a Merlin, nor a Merlin’s nest, but rather a juvenile Great Horned Owl pondering its adolescence.
Since the owl was on her side, we manipulated the camera into positon on the edge of the window and she fired away, producing the accompanying image. On this particular jaunt we had traveled some 6000 miles looking for and photographing a variety of birds, dragonflies, flowers, and other living things. But this was her favorite image. Which poses the question — why? Why, when there were much less common species recorded? Why, when there were colorful and unusual subjects under scrutiny? The answer is simple. It was because she was the one who had first discovered the bird and she was the one who recorded its image. Its image had become personal because of her involvement with it.
That makes understanding God’s position recorded in Deuteronomy 7:6-8 easier to understand: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”