Our refuge

Earlier this year Anne and I went to Dubai: we (our company) had a stand at a big international education exhibition that takes place every year at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Mynah birds are common there, and they hang around the hotels and restaurants waiting for scraps. One day we were having lunch outside on the terrace. Anne had thrown some food down: a mynah bird started to tuck in, then a crow swooped down and attacked the mynah to take the food. The terrified mynah flew down into an alleyway where the path went down to the beach. The crows soon lined up on the wall above it, sensing that soon there might be more than crumbs for dinner. Anne went down and stood near the bird and tried to scare the crows away; the mynah bird didn’t want to fly up because they were still circling around, cawing. One crow kept circling for a while, but eventually gave up when I came down and kept waving my arms at it. When people came walking down the path to go to the beach, the mynah bird decided there was only one safe place…

I look at this picture a lot. When the crows are circling, and the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), there is one place we can run to: nestled as close as we can be into the presence of the Living God.