Hello,

     As I was driving home from a pastors’ Bible Study that I go to every week as part of my preparation for writing my Sunday Sermon (all Lutherans use the same Bible passages each week, so we pastors get together to dig into things together), a large pileated woodpecker flew in front of me and grabbed ahold of the trunk of a tree.  Of course, it had to be a strong trunk upon which this pileated woodpecker landed because pileated woodpeckers are BIG birds!  Almost 20 inches long with a wingspan of 30 inches.  Red crested, black backed, and white stripes under their wings.

     The thing about pileated woodpeckers, due to their size, is they are also powerful birds.  Their smaller woodpecker cousins leave their mark in their pursuit of bugs that live in the wood of the trees, but when a pileated woodpecker starts hammering its beak on a tree it has the force and the impact of a wrecking ball.  When a pileated woodpecker starts pounding on a tree, no bug is safe.

     Anyway, as I saw this pileated woodpecker, it occurred to me that if Jesus had ever seen one, he may have said of himself, “I am a pileated woodpecker.”  I say this because it is clear to me that when God sent his Son into this world, he wasn’t sending some small downy woodpecker whose power limited it to just pounding away at soft trees.  No, when God sent his Son into the world, he sent him with the power to tackle the trees with the thickest bark and the hardest wood.  No insect can be burrowed so deep, or hidden behind a hardened knot that Jesus, the pileated woodpecker, cannot reach it.

     When I saw that pileated woodpecker today, it opened my mind to a very powerful and important truth about Jesus, a truth that I sometimes forget.  And that truth is that when it comes to me, Jesus is a pileated woodpecker.  Jesus is determined to get a hold on me, and that determination is not that of a downy woodpecker, but a pileated one. Sometimes I can find myself pretty deeply burrowed in the mess of my life with my shame and guilt taking me deeper and deeper into the wood.  Sometimes I can find myself fearfully hidden behind my solid failures.  The world does a pretty good job of toughening up the bark all around me.  The tap, tap, tap of a downy woodpecker is no sound of hope….but the thunder of a pileated woodpecker…..now that is a sound of hope.

     I suppose that there are days when the wood of your life, and the depth of your burrow is within the reach of a downy woodpecker, but if today, or any day,  is a day that you find yourself well beyond the scope of a downy woodpecker, let me remind you, as God reminded me today, that Jesus is not a small, timid downy woodpecker.  No. Jesus is a pileated woodpecker and he attacks the trees of this world with unstoppable might, pounding away at them until he has found you and gathered you into his embrace.

     I am sure, that if Jesus would have seen one, he would have said of himself, “I am a pileated woodpecker!”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger