A Divinely Appointed Peacock
By Lisa Sauls
Mitchell County
It was a year ago that God placed change on my heart. At long last, I was given the freedom to flee. To flee the West and head East where my heart truly belonged. Many years prior, due to family circumstances, I went home to Nevada to help with personal and troubling matters. Decades later, after resolving many problems and walking both my parents to the gate, it was time for me to be reunited with my heart. There was only one place my heart wished to travel to; Western North Carolina. When I was just 17 I traveled through the Blue Ridge. After a breakfast stop, I walked out to a viewpoint and the oddest thing happened to me; I felt the ground below my feet come up and into me. I can’t explain it to this day, but on that day it was clear this was a place of the Living God. 46 years would elapse until I would come home but not to a home I’d never been to. I had no idea where I would live, where I would go, where I would land. I had turned my life – mind, heart, and soul – over to the Father and the ultimate tender of my life, Jesus. Like many of you reading this, I walked the board of faith. A profound and humbling walk as we each trust the board to grow under our feet as we step into thin air. For those of you who know God then you know the miracle of walking that board.
It was Sunday morning and I had been in NC for 3 days. I was staying with a friend in Ashville when I looked for a place to live. There was a little house on a creek out in the Green Mountain area and the price had just dropped. God put it on my heart to drive out and look. As I wondered and wandered to the Creek House I felt as though God was directing my steps into and around the wilderness. When I pulled up I discovered people poking about including a real estate agent and her husband. Seeing the beauty and peace of this little cup of God’s glory put me in a sort of blindness. I could see but be so overwhelmed I couldn’t take it all in. Consuming beauty, peace and life were exploding everywhere. I made an offer the next day.
As I waited, hopeful that this would be my home, God would deliver miracle after miracle assuring me this was to be. Finally, I moved in. It was early June and with peace flowing around me I looked out a window to see the most glorious sight; a peacock. Yes, a peacock. A peacock was walking around the creek outback. I was beyond astonished. A living glory, the bird of the divine, was strolling about.
He would make his presence known. He would strut about; spreading his wings into a rounded bow, stating his glorious presence. He would honk in the morning like a bell ringing in the day. He would look at me as if we were known to one another and yet we’d never met. I told the few people I knew and my friends across the divide, “God sent a peacock!”.
While some of you may doubt what I say next, it is true. It had only been a day or two since seeing the bird when I asked the Shining Radiance of God’s Glory “how do I call this bird Lord?”. Like the wind blowing past me, I clearly heard his name: Harvey. I laughed and said to the Lord “Harvey? Harvey? I wouldn’t name anything Harvey”. Again I heard the wind blow and speak clearly: Harvey. So it was I called him as such and spelled it thus; Harvee.
As God is the greatest teacher I was inspired to look up the origin of the word and name. I was astounded to learn that it meant battle-worthy. Suddenly the finger pointed right at me. Without going into details I had survived the battle; not just of this world, not just of the failed family but of failed self who God had seen fit to revive and resuscitate. Perhaps some of you know of what I speak. There is no greater gift than God’s measure of relief. A relief that is known and unknown at the same time; a mystery revealed and yet not fully understood.
Many folks who visited the property would observe Harvee strutting about, sitting atop their trucks and cars, and saying hello with his gaze. It was wonderment come alive. Everyone who saw him was astonished as I repeatedly stated “God sent a peacock”.
And then it happened; he was not only divinely appointed to arrive he was divinely appointed to leave. How do I know that? I know because it was over the Easter weekend that his departure began.
I woke early, in darkness, on the darkest of all days. It was “that” Friday, the day humanity chose itself over God. As I let the dogs out I noticed a shadow in the dark…..once my eyes adjusted I realized it was Harvee. He was standing just a few feet from me, standing in the darkness, showing his divine presence in the black before morning. At the time I thought it odd but went about my business. As the day progressed I noticed the bird seemed different; he wasn’t hanging around the hens who scattered across the yard but kept to himself. Saturday was the same as well as Sunday, the holy day of the resurrection.
I last saw Harvee Easter evening. I watched him fly up to roost in the Chestnut tree out front. The next morning I sensed, quite palpably, that he was gone. I get up early and the morning after Resurrection Sunday was no different, and yet it was. I knew he was gone. Just as Jesus rose from the tomb so had Harvee risen from this world to his divine habitation.
Some may wonder about a story….what happened? What happened was God had brought me to my own deliverance. He had sent a gift and an escort, a sentry who strutted about trumpeting with honks here and there. God’s living testimony was present in my life and on His appointed day He appointed that bird to his eternal glory. Of all days, a most sacred day to all those who walk the Christian path, and a personal day too as it was the one-year anniversary of my leaving the old and heading toward the new. It was special and it was personal.
Special and personal: that is God in my life and yours. There is no room for an intellectual God as God is the beat of our heart and the corrector of our thoughts. We move as His feet take us and bend as His wind wills. True Christians, few and far between, don’t talk to God they show God; they demonstrate rather than discuss. Blessed be you if you are one. If you’re not, repent and save your soul by placing it on the altar of the Holy Father. This world works untiringly to tire you out; it wants to entangle your heart, confuse your mind and bend you to the lie that it is sovereign. Don’t let it win.
As the world walks the road of destiny, a destiny that won’t be denied, each of us who finds our ground on God walks the firm road of faith, hope, and the knowledge that one day we too shall have our divine appointment. The calling home of our spirit to the divine destiny we know must be ours as we are God’s children.
God speed good reader.
The Anonymous Christian.
This writing is my personal testimony of God’s miraculous hand in my own life. One I cannot account for but only kneel and weep that God would save and then bless a simple girl like myself. One who has, perhaps like you, had to traverse troubling seas, stormy nights and lonely encounters bearing refinement after refinement until realizing this temporary earthly life is just that; temporary. Regardless of the weather, regardless of day or night, regardless of any circumstance may you always trim your sails home to the eternal love of God’s Holy Realm.
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A simple girl who grew up walking the world of a man seeking the home and heart of God. No one and nothing special except the blessings God has brought me. Just a regular gal with a love for God, gardening, humble people, good dogs, and the joy of writing since little.
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