Meaning Of Feathers

Archaeopteryx Knocked From Roost as Original Bird

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The Meaning of Feathers | Avon Romance

I have always collected feathers. It’s just something I do. In my new book, Pie Town , feathers serve as an important symbol in the story. As I was writing Pie Town , I continued collecting feathers. I found them on paths in forests, along mountain trails, and beside lakes and streams. Each time I found one I placed it near my computer as a kind of good luck charm for my writing. Like people discovering pennies and figuring them for good luck, I have always thought of feathers as some sort of blessing, a sign of good fortune or heavenly approval. However, there’s something more for me about the meaning of feathers. I discovered this a few years ago.

As the pastor of a small church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I gave both a sermon for the adults and a sermon for the children every week. I usually tried to shape them both around the same Bible story or the same message. One month there were a couple of Sundays that I talked about angels. One week I told the children the Bible story about a man named Jacob who wrestled with an angel. His is the story of a guy on his way home to reconcile with an estranged brother and I told them that angels sometimes help us do the hard work of managing conflicts and finding forgiveness.

The next Sunday I told the Bible story of the prophet Elijah and how he ran in fear for his life until he fell exhausted in the desert, asking to die. I explained how an angel came to him bearing the gifts of food and water and the presents of rest and refreshment. It was that Sunday and with that story that I decided to give away some of the feathers I had collected to the children, explaining to them how I loved to find them and how they remind me of angels.

“In fact,” I said, “When I see a feather, I think that an angel has passed by that place.”

Jimmy, a bright eight-year-old boy who attended church every Sunday, liked feathers too. He took a couple of my long hawk feathers and stuck them in his shirt pocket before heading back to his seat.

Jimmy’s life is a difficult one. His mother, addicted to drugs, is in and out of trouble and in and out of unhealthy relationships. Jimmy was adopted by his great-grandmother when he was still a baby. Sometimes he has trouble concentrating and staying on task. He also struggles with rage. The days before the beginning of the school year that summer when I told them about angels and feathers were especially hard for Jimmy and his great-grandparents.

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