Swarm, Ocean!

God spoke:
Swarm, Ocean
"with fish and all sea life!
Birds, fly through the sky over Earth.
God created the huge whales, 
all the swarm of life in the waters,
and every kind and species of flying birds.
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them:  Prosper!  Reproduce!
Fill Ocean!  Birds, reproduce on Earth."
It was evening.  It was morning -
Day Five.
Genesis 1:20-23

On the fifth day of creation, which parallels with Day Two, God speaks into existence sea creatures and fish to fill the waters that were separated from the sky.  He then creates birds of every shape and size to fill the heavens over the oceans.  The thought bears repeating that God could have made cookie-cutter birds that all looked and acted and flew alike.  Instead, the breadth and depth of His vast imagination produced an astonishing variety of birds and fish.

Growing up, my mother raised parakeets.  I can't remember a time in my childhood when there was not a budgie or two chirping in a cage or hanging onto the top of the living room drapes.  She delighted in talking to them as they perched on her finger, and spent hours teaching them how to talk.  The few times that a bird managed to escape the house and into a nearby tree, Mom would find it almost immediately, because it would be sitting on a branch just yakking away.   

Our local zoo has an aviary where I can sit with my camera and watch the birds flit and skitter within a foot or so of me - as long as I stay very still.  When I spend an hour there, or when I see a bluebird or cardinal flying through my backyard, I wish that I could hold out my finger and have one land on my hand.  That is not about to happen in today's world, but in the world to come, I really look forward to enjoying the company of a wealth of beautiful birds.