When the wind is not pushing my Laser sailboat on Dickie Lake there is time to think. Last week a dragonfly dropped by on my board sailer during one of these lulls and it got me to thinking. As long as I’ve known anything of dragonflies, it has been my favourite insect. Who could not appreciate an aeronautical wonder that feeds on mosquitos or mosquito larvae, at the dragonfly nymph stage of their life. And if a deerfly pest should wander from his roadside territory to the water domain of the dragonfly, I’d like to think one of my favourite four-winged odonates would enforce his territory for the good of us all.
This dragonfly on the ivory non-slip deck of the Laser less than a metre ahead of me might have been wondering how my one-winged boat did fly, but it got me thinking of God’s presence in my life.
I moved cautiously to study the insect, but even when a bit of breeze started moving the boat, it stuck with me, along for the ride. I felt accompanied, as if by the Holy Spirit. I wondered if there are things that I do that cause that Spirit to abandon ship, as if to say, “I’m not with him on this matter”. Maybe I need to be careful to “walk right” to keep the beneficent non-creature on board in my life. But that is such an O.T. kind of thought about the Spirit. It’s possible that I can grieve the Spirit but the “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” Spirit we now have would just weigh on my conscience, letting me know he was present and not happy with me.
The info in wikipedia on Dragonflies would probably understand the dragonfly’s extended stay with me as “warming”. On Friday afternoon, another dragonfly turned a portion of his multi-facetted eye on me as I hovered over him with iPhone camera. If I have 7 or 8 pictures of him on the new cedar decking of the dock, it must be this “warming” again. Folklore has it that if a dragonfly lands on your rod when fishing, it means you are going to catch a fish. Or maybe you’re just being still, reflecting light, so that this distinguished insect can pass time mutually-beneficial with you.
Hmmm. Mutually-beneficial. May my presence be that way. And also with you.