What Can a Heron Teach Us About Jesus’s Return?

Do you have a favorite day of the year? Maybe you love a certain holiday or eagerly anticipate your birthday. One of my favorite days changes dates but is always in March. It’s the day I see the first great blue heron return after winter.

 

We live near a small lake, and each year, great blue herons return and get ready to fix up old nests or build new ones and raise their chicks. Great blue herons are colony birds which means they nest and raise their young together. From spring through summer, we watch around a dozen nests as heron chicks hatch, grow bigger, and eventually fledge (leave the nest). Toward the end of the season, we watch the young birds learn to fish around the lake.

 

After the nesting season, the herons leave to find warmer places and more food over the winter. I miss their presence during the cold months, and my heart leaps when I see them returning in spring. I love watching them fly with their large wings, long necks, mohawk hair (called a crest), and long stilt legs stretched out behind them. I know that soon our neighborhood will be lively with these massive birds and we’ll enjoy watching them fish in the shallow waters near shore.

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I wasn’t expecting the herons to return for another week or two. But yesterday, when my daughter and I were in the front yard, she pointed up and exclaimed, “Mom, look!” A heron swooped down right in front of us and landed on our neighbor’s roof. We watched it standing on the roof, overlooking the lake, for ten minutes before it flew off.

 

Each year, I’m not sure what day the herons will return, but I know they’ll come. In a similar way, as followers of Jesus, we look forward with confidence to when Jesus will return. 

 

When Jesus was on Earth with his disciples, he told them he would soon be leaving. They were confused and very upset. Jesus comforted them with these words in John 14:1-3: “Jesus said, ‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; I would not tell you this if it were not true. I am going there to prepare a place for you. After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am.’”

 

Jesus will one day return and call all his followers to himself. It will be a far grander day than any holiday or birthday! We can live for Jesus here on Earth and tell as many people as we can about his love while we eagerly wait for his return. Just like with the herons, we don’t know the day he’ll come back, but even more than the herons’ timely return, we are confident of Christ’s coming.

“At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky with great power and glory. He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from every part of the world." Matthew 24:30-31

Dear God, thank you for designing big, wonderful birds like herons. Thank you that Jesus is one day coming back and we can be confident of his return.

Fun Fact:

Herons swallow prey—mostly fish but also frogs, snakes, and even small mammals—without chewing! I once watched one swallow an entire sunfish the size of my hand whole.