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Like a... pigeon?

When you ask someone what their favorite bird is, rarely will someone say pigeon. (Try it: What’s your favorite bird?) Pigeons have a reputation for being the rats of the avian world—they make their homes in inconvenient places, they eat garbage, and urban spaces tend to be full of them. But pigeons are also uncommonly smart animals. They’re the only birds that can drink without lifting their heads—an adaptation that gives them an edge on many predators. They build quick and efficient nests. And they are directly related to one of the Bible’s favorite birds—the dove.

In fact, in today’s Scripture passage, the Greek word for dove can also be translated as “pigeon.” People in the ancient Near East didn’t usually distinguish between the two species at all, since they were so closely related.

When Jesus goes down into the water for his baptism, heaven is opened and the disciples see the Spirit of God descend upon him like a dove—a pigeon!—and land on him.

“This is my Son,” speaks God the Father from heaven. “Whom I love.”

Jesus stands in an ordinary river and God’s Spirit comes upon him like an ordinary bird. It’s a reminder to us that God takes ordinary things—and ordinary people, like us!—and makes them holy out of his great and abiding love for us.