Another (less common) symbol of the Resurrection is the peacock. Like most of the artistic, symbolic depictions of the Resurrection this creature is associated with folklore that signified similar messages to the Christian understanding of the Resurrection. It is almost a visual sermon.
It was thought, years ago, that peacock flesh never decayed and so the peacock became a symbol for immortality. As a result this sense of everlasting life became associated with death having no hold on Christ.
Similarly, peacocks shed their tail feathers and regrow (apparently even more) beautiful ones each year. What seems like an ending and the loss of beauty becomes, after a time, a revelation of even greater hope and wonder than could previously have been imagined.
The 'eyes' of the peacock feathers have also been understood as symbols of God's omniscience, and God always being with us, like the promise found in Psalm 32 -
'I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you'.
The idea of God being with us, together with peacocks shedding their feathers, has made me wonder about how God works through our struggles. However much it might seem that all we have that is beautiful is shedding around us; that God is forever with us in life's ebbs and flows. Neither our pains nor our joys go unseen and are celebrated by the one who knows what it is to give up everything to show us the way to eternal life.
A prayer that seems to fit these themes:
Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(this and other prayers, found here.)
♫ And, a slightly tenuous link from the idea that peacocks are immortal... Immortal, Invisible
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