I was cycling on my road bike on an October day and ran into a flock of black birds. I have been cycling solo, avoiding group road rides due to risks associated with COVID-19.

The setting was a fall morning in Allen, Texas near some farm fields. I rode towards a large flock of black birds crossing the road. I estimate that the group consisted of several thousand birds. As my bike and I approached, their flight pattern created a wonderous phenomena of murmuration (a flock of birds in flight creating patterns in the sky as the flock reacts to various stimuli). As I rode nearer, it seemed to be a bird cloud – a flying, flitting, fluttering cloud (thus I coined the phrase for this bird cloud – a floud!!!). This fluttering floud began to envelope me as it covered the road. I continued cranking away at the pedals, propelling the bike down the road at 20 miles per hour. The bird cloud began at ground level with some black birds skimming the surface while other black birds soared perhaps a hundred feet above me.

At times, the bird cloud (floud) was dark and opaque – the bird’s dark wings angling perpendicularly to me. And in a flash, the floud pivoted, wings paralell to me, allowing me to see through the floud to the clear blue sky. Then again, the floud would flash back in another wave of dark opacity. Wave after wave of whirling synchronized patterns dazed my amazed eyes. The bird cloud parted as I rode through it, each bird responding to my bike racing down the road, each bird flitting away from me. I rode with heightened senses that had been jolted into overload mode by the pattern of wings, the roar of wind, and a dizzying, dazzling display of swooping synchronicity, each bird responding to those birds around it. The floud’s dance seemed to be coordinated by some master choreographer.

I continued riding inside the bird cloud, amazed at the aerial ballet playing out around me. After a minute or so, I exited the flittering floud and continued down the road. God had reached out to me (again), letting me know that morning of his amazing creation. The sun, the wind, the bird cloud, and a morning of healthy bike exercise – all gifts from God. I reveled in God’s goodness, his creativity, his choreography, and his awesome power as my wheels rolled down the road.