Collect for this Sunday:
O God, who word is life, and whose delight is to answer our cry:
give us faith like that of the woman who refused to remain an outsider,
so that we too may have the wit to argue and demand
that our children be made whole,
through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thinking of a mother’s wit in relation to bringing up healthy offspring, and in partnership with our Season of Creation and its theme To Hope With Creation, I was amused to find an article about the behaviour of female zebra finches (Zebra finch motherhood ).
These birds are monogamous (in laboratory conditions, ‘divorce rates are very low’).
So if a mated pair begins to produce less than adequate offspring because of a less than adequate male finch, the female adjusts her resources in her egg-laying behaviour. As well as increasing egg volume and yolk carotenoid content, the mother also deposits slightly larger amounts of testosterone into the eggs. The title of the 2009 study is “Females lay larger eggs when paired to sexually unattractive males”. The larger eggs, which contain more nutrients counter the father’s undesirable genes and the subsequent offspring are given a better chance of surviving.
Very clever and witty behaviour indeed!
And as for true resourcefulness - check out the duck in the picture. After three days of continuous rain, the park at the bottom of my street became a temporary pond. It didn’t take the duck long to find it, and make a home!
Praise the Creator for a world of true resourcefulness, wonder, delight and laughter!
May you find some of this same wonder, delight and laughter this week!
Blessings
Rev Ceri
