The peacock is first mentioned in the Bible at the time of Solomon. He used to send his ships to distant countries, and they returned once every three years, “bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.” Solomon was the richest of all the kings that the Bible tells us about. When he became king, God spoke to him in a dream and told him to ask for whatever he wanted. If God spoke to you like this, what would you ask for?
Solomon did not pray that God would make him rich, or give him health, or allow him to live many years on earth; but he said, “I am a child, I don’t know how to get out or how to get in. So give your servant an understanding heart.” So God was pleased with what he asked for and, in addition to giving him great wisdom, he also gave him riches and honor. He had forty thousand horses and plenty of silver and gold. All the vessels used in his house were gold, because silver was not enough; it was “like stones” in abundance, and “nothing reckoned in the days of Solomon.” In the second chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon himself speaks of his riches, and after telling us some of his treasures, he says: “All that my eyes desired, I did not keep; it did not separate my heart from any joy.” You may think that he must have been perfectly happy, if any man in this world ever was; but that he says “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” This doesn’t sound like much to be happy about. No, dear child, these are not the things that make us happy; nothing but the true love of God in the heart can do this.
There are many peacocks in India, and large flocks of them are sometimes seen around the temples; they also live in the bushes near the banks of rivers. Sometimes they rest on tall trees, but they always make their nests on the ground, under the bushes.
Once upon a time there was a foolish and evil emperor who cared little for anything except “what he should eat, what he should drink and what he should wear”. He was proud to say how much his dinners cost and how much it cost people to prepare them. One of the dishes that he liked, because it cost a lot of money and a lot of time and trouble, was made up of the tongues of flamingos (a kind of bird) and the brains of peacocks, do you envy a king like that? ?
The peacock is a very splendid bird; its colors are the richest and most beautiful. The tail feathers are usually over a meter long, and when they are spread out in the sunlight, like a huge fan, nothing could be more graceful. Yet for all its beauty, I don’t think you can love a peacock the way you love a lamb or a dove. He seems selfish and vain, and there’s nothing charming about him; his voice is very rough and unpleasant. There are some people who, like the peacock, are called fair or beautiful, but whose hearts are not pure and beautiful in the sight of God. “Beauty” in itself “is vain”; but “the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price.”