Meet Gruber …

It was mid-winter when I first met him.   I was working at my desk when suddenly there was a fluttering swarm of wings past my window as dozens of small birds left the half a dozen feeding stations in the yard and flew into the evergreen shrubbery planted along the front of my home. Just a few seconds later a beautiful Cooper’s Hawk swept in and perched on the shepherd’s crook 4 feet outside my window. He looked at me with a baleful yellow eye, stretched his wings, waggled his tail feathers and rested there for nearly 15 minutes. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t even a peep from the ordinarily noisy sparrows, chickadees and juncos in the bushes. I named him Gruber.

Gruber continued to visit my front yard throughout the winter months and even now into the Spring. I’m not naïve enough to believe he visits because he likes my company. He has revealed the true nature of his visits on several occasions when I observed him snatching an unsuspecting small bird, and once a mourning dove, and then perching in the tree as he plucked the hapless creature, created a flurry of feathers drifting across the yard in the breeze, and ate it, depositing the inedible parts on the ground for me to pick up. I still like him visiting though and I tell myself he’s only doing what he was designed to do in a world cursed by sin. It’s not his fault.

In over 35 years of church related ministry, I’ve seen my share of Grubers. No church is immune but my observation is that small churches and church plants are particularly susceptible to their raids. They come swooping in on the flock of those who are feeding on the Word of God and the spiritual ministry of the local church and catch unsuspecting ones in their claws. The hapless creatures are then ravaged and all but destroyed by the deceit, false teaching and selfish purposes of their captors and, when the prey have served their purpose, they are discarded while Gruber begins looking for his next meal. I detest it when I have to deal with them. It breaks my heart when I have to come in and clean up after their meal while they go on to new feeding grounds. They are not doing what they were designed to do. Rather they are doing what they have willfully and sinfully chosen to do. I’ll never enjoy their presence and will always pray God’s judgment upon them.

My Cooper’s Hawk? He’s still perching in my yard. I catch sight of him almost every day and now I’ve noticed that he is often accompanied by Marcia. Sparrows and other small birds beware, be alert, be safe!