Yellow-billed Cuckoo : Seen and Unseen Faith

This is a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. This bird combines a notorious unwillingness to pop its head up with a distinctive call that can be heard throughout the forest. We may well not see it, but its unmistakable call always confirms the reality of its presence. Fleeting glimpses can lead us to confuse our limited vision for limited reality. Relying only on what we see, we begin to doubt the truth we know. “Since I haven’t seen it, it must not be there.”

Tanakh is compellingly transparent in its portrayals of our greatest archetypes’ doubts. Moses doubted HaShem’s nomination to return to Egypt. Sarah laughed when the angel promised a child in her advanced years. Jonah, the Jewish Prophet, flees HaShem’s calling, in contrast with the foreign sailors and Ninevites, who demonstrate immediate faith. And of course, the whole people who had just witnessed the miracles of the Exodus, chose doubt in the episode of the spies and consigned themselves to dying in their dessert wanderings.

Moments of doubt are built into the structure of faith. When we limit ourselves to what we see, we fear the Unseeable isn’t there. The Shema, the essential expression of our Faith - is a command to listen, not look. Listening, straining to hear the still, small voice, confirms to us that shyness doesn’t mean absence. An ability and willingness to trust in what we hear - despite a seeming absence - is the foundation of faith, whether in an unseen Cuckoo or a divine message.