Photo by Chrissy McClarren & Andy Rego

Northern Shrike

An adorable and fluff-breasted small songbird with a distinctive black mask and a call that features both a short, kind whistle and a rattle, like the roll of the dice, the northern shrike breeds in the tundra of North America and Siberia. The hook at the tip of its beak resembles a sharp tooth.

What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?

Oh, Shrike! You reveal a brutal truth about God and Creation. You look so innocuous and gentle, but your sharp beak severs the spinal cord of fellow heavier birds or mice that you carry and impale on barbed wire to pick at their entrails.

You reveal both the beauty and terror of creation, and its God who cares less for quaintness than for truth. You reflect humankind--most unkind--who continues to nail God to the cross, crowning the Son with thorns. If God still loves us, shall I withhold love for you, dear butcher bird?

Author - Rt. Rev. Rob Hirschfeld

Bishop Rob Hirschfeld lives among the woodland, fields, ponds and rivers of central New Hampshire.

Of God of truths that defy our limited vocabularies of beauty and brutality: Assist us with your Grace that we may begin to see your infinite Presence in the mysteries of life and creation, that our hearts may be fixed on the unspeakable love and joy that you reveal to us in both sparrow and shrike; through Jesus Christ, both crucified and alive.