Clever Words: A Lenten Devotional

A Clever Word for the Season of Lent
πτέρυξ (pterux)
wing
A Clever Verse for Context
How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings (pterux), and you were not willing! (Luke 13:34)

Clever Reflections
Spiritual
Every now and then, when I’m spending time with my sister she’ll take a look at me and give my hair a good scrunch (keeps the curls in good shape, you see).  If I happen to be leading worship and she’s visiting, she’s been known to reach over and straighten out my stole.  There’s a comfort in that.  While there’s always a part of us determined to make it on our own and be the ones in control, there is also such relief in finding ourselves under someone else’s wing (pterux). For a moment we are reminded that someone has gone first, seen the danger and found a way through.  Someone knows what we are going through and offers us comfort.  It may not seem like much: a straightened stole, a scrunched up curl, a screen of feathers between us and the world.  But in the moment, somehow, it is always just enough.  Enough to remind us who we are, whose we are, and that we are beloved.  
Literary

A Bonus Dino Selfie!!!!!

Bonus dino etymology: Pterodactyl - “winged finger”
πτέρυξ - wing
Δάκτυλος - finger

A friendly Pterodactyl offered the Liturgisaur shelter beneath its tiny little finger wings!

Clever Questions for Further Reflection
Who are the people who have taken you under their wing? 
What exactly did they do? 
How did it help?

A Clever Prayer to Close
1 But now thus says the Lord,
    he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.

​Isaiah 43:1-2