Let me ask you a question that you may not have considered before… What sound does a peacock make? If you’re anything like me, your answer is probably, “I dunno, does a peacock make a sound?” I found myself stumped by this odd question while praying one afternoon in the beginning of 2014.
You see, I’d had a very vivid dream just a few days before this strange question was presented to me. In this dream, I found myself in a Victorian home, beautifully decorated in vintage theme. I was aware that there were other women in the house. We were all there for a purpose. I was walking around arranging something in my hands….It was a vintage pin or hairpiece….I’m not quite sure….but it had pearls, beads and gems that I was carefully placing on this piece. The central component was a single peacock feather. I said to myself in the dream, “I must make a clear, mental note as to how I am making this piece because I’m going to need to remember.” I turned it over and made a careful examination of the back. Then I woke up. The dream was so vivid in my mind. I laid in bed and thought it over. Later, as we drove to church, the dream replayed over and over like a movie.
During the service, I happened to look across the aisle at a girl who was visiting our church that morning. I was distracted by the headband she was wearing. After the service I began to speak to her, taking careful notice of what she had in her hair. I was stunned! It was almost the exact hair piece I had been constructing in my dream, except the feather was black. I stopped short with what I was saying to her and trying not to seem too “Out of this world” I said to her, “I like your hairpiece. This may sound weird but I had a dream last night that I was making a piece just like that…..except I used a peacock feather.” She said to me, “Well then, you must have been making it for me because I’m looking for a piece with a peacock feather in it.”I was so taken back by her response that I fumbled, “Wow, that’s amazing!” and then hurried on out. I knew without question that I was definitely having a “God moment”. Then I thought, “What on earth is going on here, Lord??”
For days, I couldn’t get the whole thing out of my mind. Later that week as I drove to Ladies Bible Study, I began to wonder, “Am I reading too much into this, Lord? I mean, I don’t want to overthink the whole thing.” I asked God to confirm there was a divine purpose to this…though it wasn’t clear to me yet what that purpose was. By noon that day, I had my answer to prayer!
Many of us came into Bible Study that particular morning with troubling situations, so we decided to suspend our study for the day and instead, pray for each other. I, myself, had come in with some very serious matters. As the ladies gathered around me, they prayed for all of the things effecting my life, including my family and the desire I had had for many years to be of help to hurting girls. The pastor prayed for me to know how to proceed so I could begin to take deliberate steps forward into the way God wanted me to go. By the time we were done praying I felt encouraged and filled with fresh strength.
As we were finishing up and starting to take our seats, I found myself distracted by some motion that a woman who was visiting with us was making. She had been wearing a rather large scarf on that cold morning and was now pulling it off over her head. As the Pastor was talking I drifted off in my thoughts as I watched this woman lay her scarf down next to her. I was thinking about how my future daughter-in-law loves scarves and wears them frequently. As I was refocusing my thoughts on the discussion at hand, I glanced over at the woman’s top that had previously been covered by her scarf. I just about jumped up out of my seat! On the front of her shirt was a large, full feathered peacock! I was now completely distracted from ANYTHING else going on in that room! “Oh my goodness, Lord! What is going on here?!” I snapped out of it, but honestly couldn’t wait to get out to my car! All the way home, I thought and thought. Yes, for sure there was something much more to this dream and series of events that had followed!
When I got home, I sat on the couch talking on and on with the Lord. It was then, after sitting and mulling the whole thing over that I heard the odd question, “What sound does a peacock make?”
“What?” It was a definite question being posed to me. The question came again, “What sound does a peacock make?” I knew it was God speaking to my heart. How very bizarre.
“I don’t know, Lord. Nothing? Do they make a sound?” Suddenly, I heard it. A distant memory came flooding back to my mind. The peacock says, “Help!”
Have you ever gone to the zoo as a kid and seen peacocks just meandering about? I mean, to ME they seemed a little scary as you really have no idea what they’re going to do! I know I gave them a rather wide berth. But that was the memory coming back to me. Off in the distance as we were watching the monkeys and polar bears, came an eerie cry! “HELP,HELP!” “Dear God! What on earth is THAT?!” It was the peacocks! Their cry sounds like a person yelling, “Help!” Oooo.…very freaky.
As I pondered this while sitting on the couch, I knew I had to Google it. I love Google! I looked up the words, “Sounds of peacocks”. Ya, that’ll do it. Out of my speakers came a loud, piercing cry…”HELP, HELP!” Oh man! I KNEW it!! I sat there looking at picture after picture of the most unbelievable assortments of peacocks that I had ever seen before.
“Wow, Lord! I am completely amazed at how beautiful these birds are!” I felt freshly impressed by the creativity of God.
“Look at them closer, Tracy. What’s all that for?” I heard the Lord speaking loud and clear.
I thought, “Yah, what IS it doing?” Then it came to me. Those are huge ‘eyes’ on their feathers! Those eyes are ……camouflage!
One of the clips I had watched showed a class of kids getting too close for the peacock’s comfort. When the peacock turned and saw the encroaching children, it spread its plumes in a massive display of eyes, walking and turning back and forth to distract this possible threat, hopefully causing these children to back away to a safe distance.
“The peacock is afraid, Lord! The ‘eyes’ are used to intimidate anything that gets too close, anything threatening. It’s a dazzling disguise, protection, a facade to ward off whatever is frightening it. So, these peacocks could be thought of as, “The beautiful crying ‘Help!'”
I sat there completely blown away. God had my full attention.
“Isn’t this the picture of broken women, Tracy?” Thoughts flooded my mind as the Lord began to expound on what He was showing me. “They hide themselves within their beauty, trying desperately to stay safe. If anyone or anything gets too close causing them to feel threatened, intimidated or in danger they put up beautiful facades to keep others away, distracting them until the threat has passed. That big plumage actually helps that bird feel safe. After all, it IS quite small under all those feathers. Hurting girls feel much the same- small, helpless, vulnerable and extremely unsafe. Thus they hide within their beauty.”
A massive light bulb came on. I saw it! I saw THEM very clearly! I began to cry and cry. What God showed me that day sitting at my computer has changed my life. I am not the same person. You see, I had been one of those girls. I wish I could say that I am her no longer but it’s a journey, really. A journey that has to be taken one step at a time. It begins by realizing that we can not struggle through this life alone. We need God to help us. He can heal our broken insides if we allow Him to. He can help that hurting and vulnerable girl to become a confident woman. It starts by realizing that we are broken and daily struggling with fear. Jesus came to this earth and became a human. He knows how it feels to be rejected and hurt. He knows the wrongs we have done and those that have been done to us. He feels our pain and yet God has a plan to change our hurting broken lives and make us brand new. Whole and safe.
It begins by turning toward Jesus with your trembling heart. He is mighty to save… Even when you think you’ll never be brave enough to take your plumes down! I’m still in the process of healing and change but I can confidently tell you, my plumes are becoming eagle’s feathers as God reveals to me who He is as my Heavenly Father. When you are highly valued and under the care of such a Father, you are free to spread far your wings and soar to heights you’ve only dreamed possible! It’s the longing of every human heart to know that God has created them to be beautiful, both outside AND in! So, just like that, God gave me my direction to go forward in my purpose. I will tell you all about it! But first let me ask you this…..
Do YOU know what sound a peacock makes? I suggest, you “Google” it!
(If you look down at the bottom right of my website, you can see my locket containing the story of my dream. What’s YOUR story? Click on the locket and build you own!)