FROM THE BIRDS





Do simple and ordinary things teach you spiritual lessons? Here are just a few I’ve learned from the birds.

The two of us were strolling through a beautiful garden, admiring God’s awesome creation! The diversity, the colors, the textures; what a feast for the eyes! Then we came upon this pretty bird, walking along the sidewalk, just like us. It led the way for what seemed a long time, often turning around to see if we were still there! I found it quite humorous. Was it tired from flapping its wings? Was it hosting a tour for us? So, I raised a question to the bird. “Why are you walking when you can fly?” A clear message came to me. So often in our spiritual lives we plod along earthbound, our little legs running as fast as they can, making things difficult for ourselves, and always looking over our shoulder at who is behind us. What a limited perspective on everything, when we could let our spirits fly and soar above earth’s problems and strife, carried along by the powerful wind of the Holy Spirit!


Driving through the gorgeous mountains and valleys, I was enjoying my time with the Lord, filling the van with songs and prayers as an offering of praise...with eyes wide open. I was listening to some excellent sermons and hearing something different in the messages than I had heard the first time around. But as I was driving the Lord was also allowing other spiritual lessons. Everyone once in a while there would be birds on the road, eating road kill. Ok, I know, that’s gross, as the kids would say. What caught my attention though, was that there would always be some birds risking their very lives by staying with the dead stuff for as long as possible. Are we also feasting on the ‘dead stuff’ of the world, putting our very souls in danger, at great risk? Maybe they saw themselves as ‘superbird’, able to stop my van with one fling of the wing! How often do we think in our foolish pride that we can stop God from carrying out His plan, much like a crow trying to stop a van? Guess who is the loser?


Off and on there would be other birds which would seemingly drop out of the sky. Like a kamikaze pilot one would set its flight pattern for my van, perform aerial tricks, then swoop past, on what I thought was a collision course with my hood, and then pull out again at full speed. What a show-off! Are we living such a gamble, counting on our expertise, on luck, our charm, on our cleverness and ingenuity to get us out of our sinful choices? Do we love to live seeing how close to the edge of the pit of sin we can go and not get singed? Don’t bet on it!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The enjoyment those birds get out of their swooping and catching the wind that the vehicles bring must seem worth the threat...sometimes I think it could be a lesson for us to live life a little MORE recklessly...trusting that the wind will carry us to safety. Feeling his hand carry us to safety may be worth the risk, it just would be nice to see the future hey?

Anonymous said...

Definitely another excellent perspective. May the Lord give the wisdom to know which response applies to our circumstances. Na, I wouldn't want to see my future, but I am glad that we DO have a hope for our future with the Lord.

Anonymous said...

Some very interesting observations! I've always enjoyed watching the birds fly! Very beautiful... so many different colors.