Whilst driving down a country lane in Devon, I was suddenly aware of thousands of birds flying overhead. We followed the flock and pulled over as the starlings settled in a field of sheep, both parties seemingly unaware of each other. I felt like I’d stumbled into a David Attenborough ‘Wild Isles’ episode and stood excitedly, wondering what would happen next.
For a time, the birds drifted this way and that, settling on the grass or perching on the overhead electricity cables, which started to sway under the weight of the increasing number of birds. There was no clear leader, yet they all appeared to move as one unit, like an enormous bubble, changing shape in the air.
Starlings are thought to form a murmuration to protect themselves from predators. The birds can coordinate themselves because they respond so quickly to their neighbours, so it was as if they were acting like one big bird. I’d often wondered why this natural phenomenon is called a ‘murmuration’, as the sound of their chirping was loud and vibrant, much more than a mere murmur.
Suddenly, this giant flock took off, forming one great black cloud. The sound of beating wings was more like the throb of a helicopter, as the starlings flew in perfect unison over my head and towards their nightly roosting spot in the nearby pine plantation.
It was a breathtaking moment.
I started to ponder on the agility and organisation of the birds, how they knew which way to go and not collide. Perhaps they were calling out instructions to each other, or maybe they have really good spatial awareness, or could they simply just be responding to external factors beyond their cloud? It’s probably a combination of all these factors.
It made me consider what life led by the Holy Spirit looks like. Sometimes there are periods when we feel we are drifting this way and that, but there comes a Kairos moment, when we feel God has given us a clear direction to move towards.
