Two by two

This was the scene from our back yard this weekend. A pair of pileated woodpeckers. These birds are huge. Each one is about the size of one of Scott’s shoes. When they flew away, their wing span was at least 2 feet wide. These birds visit our back yard often. We hear them more often than we see them and their voices are as distinguishable as their visible presence.

They stayed together the entire time we were watching them Sunday afternoon. They cackled and chirped. One stayed near the crook in the tree, the other one hopped up the tree pecking and drilling. At one point they snipped their beaks back and forth together. I don’t know what that was all about, maybe they were feeding. Or kissing. Or just being fussy.

Later I Googled woodpeckers (how did you think I knew they were called pileated?!). Some of what I read stated that in this particular species, the male and female stay together year round for the purpose of protecting their territory.

I believe staying together is the way God intended it to be.

I know there are many instances in the Bible of men having multiple wives and even a woman having five husbands (although, maybe not all at the same time). But I can’t think of a single case where God instructed anything other than one husband or one wife. Yes, it happened, but it wasn’t at God’s command.

It’s not always easy. Sometimes the greater challenge in love is not having to live without them, it is learning to live with them. How do I do that? I remind myself that my husband has to live with me (and all my fiesta dishes, my books, my special order food, my early bedtime, my cold hands/feet/nose, my need for planning and processes, my, my, my…..)


“But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 6:18-22