Did anyone ever send you on a snipe hunt when you were young? By definition a snipe hunt is a search doomed to frustrated failure because of the non-existence of the sought after item. Searching for a left-handed monkey wrench would be a true snipe hunt. Diogenes is said to have taken a lamp in broad daylight out in the streets in search of an honest person. He used a snipe hunt to sarcastically make the point that there were no honest people.I’ve got bad news for all those intent on sending naïve initiates out into the dark night with a bag…there really are snipe! I recently went in search of snipe, actual snipe. Wilson’s Snipes are birds of wet meadows and bogs that occasionally breed in this area and regularly pass through on migration. If you have ever looked for them in the wet fields that they prefer you will know why they are said not to exist. It is quite easy to look over the field and see nothing only to notice some movement, lift your binoculars and find the area literally crawling with snipe. They accomplish this because of their build and coloration. They are squatty birds with mottled brown patterning, meaning that they are low to the ground that they resemble.
My snipe hunt took me to perfect habitat where others had reported the species only days before. I even donned my boots and walked the wet field, all to no avail. If there were any snipe there that day they were indeed invisible. Who knows, perhaps they possess the power to become transparent. Certainly no one could disprove such a theory. Or perhaps they have the ability to transmogrify. This I might be able to accept since I went out with hopes of adding Wilson’s Snipe to my year list but instead added a (not surprising but unexpected) Savannah Sparrow.
In reality, the power of a snipe hunt is not in the snipe but in the hunt. I love the post Easter story of the two disciples walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Just like a snipe in a field, Jesus was invisible to these disciples. They were unable to see what was right in front of their eyes, until they looked with the eyes of faith. They saw Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
Where do you see Jesus today? When you come to the table of Holy Communion can you see Jesus in the breaking of the bread? And once you are fed do you go out into the world on a snipe hunt for the Christ? I’ve got news for you, Christ is as real as snipes and often just as difficult to find, until you know how and where to look. The best habitat for finding Christ is anyplace where God’s love and justice are needed. I’m sure that you encounter this habitat regularly, try using your faith eyes to find Christ the next time you are there.
