“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus

Bee-eaters are one of my favorite African Birds. They are elegant, brightly colored, and have interesting behaviors. They are custom designed to feed on bees and other flying insects…up to the larger dragonflies. Most are communal nesters, and most nest in holes in banks along streams and rivers. In the regions of Uganda we visited, there are 11 possible bee-eaters. 10 are resident, and there is one migrant that breeds in Europe. We saw 6 different species in 12 days. Though they are all obviously variations on a theme, they are all distinctive. Even the closest two in the panel here, the Cinnamon-chested (bottom left) and the Little (bottom right) are different enough to recognize in the field. (And they are, left to right and down: White-throated, Northern Carmine, Swallow-tailed, Red-throated, Cinnamon-chested, and Little.)

Now, I believe that this universe we live in, and this earth we live on, and all its creatures, are works of creative love…works of a creative imagination working good. So when I look at the Bee-eaters of Uganda, I see and can celebrate that love. Sometimes I like to think that what I believe is a choice, and I sometimes present it that way to others since it can make it easier to understand, or at least to accept…but if I am honest, there is no choice involved. I am compelled, in the face of the evidence before me, to believe that creative love moves in, lives in, everything around me. What is already in me, the light within, answered what I see with a resounding and generous yes! The Bee-eaters just make it easier for me to believe. May your eye be generous and you whole being full of light today! Happy Sunday!