On Saturday morning, our family had an unexpected visitor in our house. As we were doing our morning preparations for participating in our church’s visitation program and breakfast, I had a bird zip past the kitchen door and slam into our glass door. The bird flew back down the hallway and into our living room and hid itself among the many plants that we have in the large picture window. I removed one of them, panting and scared, was that little bird. Not wanting to risk hurting it by grabbing it, I decided to hold out a finger in front of it; to my surprise, it jumped onto my finger and allowed me to pick it up and carry it outside. It even allowed me and our two year old daughter to lightly stroke its back before flying away.
Little did I know the lessons that God would teach me by having a small feathered visitor that morning. Even as I look at the photograph taken by my wife, Michelle, I am astounded at the lessons that this one event can be used to teach. The first that comes to mind is a teaching by our Lord Jesus Christ: Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows (Luke 12:6-7). Our little visitor is, in the minds of many, just a small and insignificant bird; he (or she) is literally one of millions of finches that are found in our area. With the exception to our families and friends, we too, in the eyes of this world are simply one of billions, insignificant and little of value. However, in the eyes of God, we are much more than that; we are a valued and cherished precious life. Each person is divinely created, with a divine appointment, by a holy and loving God.
Just as this bird was trapped in our house, he was faced with two alternatives – allow me to help him or to continue to escape on his own. He could have flown from the window sill to any place in the house. He also would have faced other obstacles he was unaware of, such as our cat. Again, this is such a spiritual lesson as it seems totally against a wild bird’s nature to trust anything they cannot begin to understand; similarly, it is against our flesh’s concept of self-preservation to trust in someone we cannot totally comprehend, much less cannot see!
The Psalmist and kind, David, wrote Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped (Psalms 124:7). The fowlers that David refers to is a type of bondage – anything that keeps and holds us back from the full enjoyment of life that only God can give. The fowler is all the world can offer; bondage to sin, disease, disappointment, discouragement, emptiness, and a perpetual sense of incompleteness. Its easy to see it in the faces of those we meet each day – sad and heavy facial expressions, joyless lives, and numerous attempts to fill the void with something and anything that will make those feelings go away. What we see developing in the lives of those seeking to fill the void is increased drug usage, risky sex, tattoos, piercings and other bodily mutilations are all symptoms of a much greater problem – bondage to sin, to the flesh, and to Satan. There is no permanent fulfillment in the flesh, only more bondage, more emptiness, and increased feelings of loneliness. Only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can they escape the fowler and truly enjoy life the way that God desires us to.
Just as the bird made the decision to allow me to help him, we must make the decision to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must make the decision to come to him, to allow him to work in our lives, and to allow him complete and unfettered control. Just as that bird had to surrender its feelings of self-preservation and to trust in me to take care of it, we also must surrender our fleshly will, yield to God, and fully trust in him to provide for all our needs. By his own nature, he cannot force us to love him, to desire to serve him, or to live our lives through him.
