“For you were formerly darkness,
but now you are the Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit
of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth,) trying to
learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do
not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose
them; for it is disgraceful to even speak of the things which are done by them
in secret. But all things become visible
when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is
light. For this reason, it says, ‘Awake
sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.’” Ephesians 5:8-14
“I’M going to teach this bird how to
fly.” That is the first thought in my
head. Immediately after came this
thought: “HOW? I’m not a bird, for
crying out loud!” However, it’s my
responsibility to teach this bird how to use those still developing wings
sprouting out either side of it. I can’t
fly! I can’t demonstrate! None of the neighborhood birds ever came by
to show my bird what their parents have taught them! Yet, it’s all on me!
As Ricky Ricardo once said, “Let me ‘splain!” (If you caught that, your life is grand! J) During my high school years, I was outside roaming
around the woods around my family’s yard when I stumbled upon a nest that fell
out of a tree. A very young grackle was
still inside the nest, loudly chirping!
While not the most favorable type of bird, I still felt bad for the
little youngster and made the mistake of touching the youngling. Anyone that knows ANYTHING about birds, once
you touch a baby bird, that scent stays on it and the mother will abandon her
baby for life. Knowing that already, I
knew that I had just take over the parental role for this scrawny, black
bird. I began daily feedings and (long
story short) helping this little guy to grow.
Back to my earlier dilemma. The time came that I knew I had to get this
bird to try out its wings. Typically,
you have the parent sitting in the nest with junior. There is no “Are you ready to try?”
prelude. Whilst the young bird starts
complaining how it “doesn’t wanna fly today” (that’s a teen for you), the
parent kicks the bird right out of the nest.
“Better start flapping or prepare to kiss the ground…HARD!” The youngling has no choice but to start
waving those wings frantically, in hopes that they may arrest their downward
momentum enough to land with just a soft thud! The parent will get the baby, take it back to
the nest and…. punt! kick the youngling
out again! Eventually through practice,
the young bird starts getting the art of flying down.
I had no nest to kick this little bird
out of. However, I noticed that the bird
liked being right there with me, always.
Hmm! I’ve got it! I’ll for this little guy to fly to me, if he
wants to stay with me! So, I carried the
bird over and sat it on the post to our mail box, then walked away. The bird didn’t lunge straight for me, it
waited. After walking a few good yards
away, I turned to the still waiting bird.
Obviously, I don’t speak Chirp. However, the bird instinctively knew was I
was doing. It was time to start flapping
those wings to get over to where I was standing. Here’s the cool part: this little guy didn’t just try to take the
quickest, shortest flight path to me.
Nope! It realized the importance
of this task. So, when it leapt into the
air and began flapping, the bird faced a direction away from me, then took a wide arching flight path before
frantically landing on my shoulder, heavily breathing after that little
workout. After giving a chance to catch its
breath, we repeated the exercise, over and over.
Instincts! What a wonderful thing! That is one area that we humans don’t give
one another enough credit, especially as parents. We often don’t take those moments to “push
junior out of the nest” and have them try to work on learning something on
their own. At the very least, we don’t
to an extent where they must learn it quick or face a rather unpleasant
result. Take learning to ride a bike,
for example. We adults can direct,
instruct, and teach until we are blue in the face. It is up to the kid to figure out how to
balance, after falling and skinning up a leg a couple of times. It will happen. Inevitably, the child learns how NOT to fall,
or we just let them toss the bike down and give up. Likewise, adults tend to do that while
learning how to live as Christ has shown us.
Many times, we see people “give up and
pout” because, spiritually, things are going their way. They try a couple of times and give up, since
no one gave them a step-by-step instruction list and lots of “easy”
practice. Jesus gave plenty of instruction to prepare us for
the moments to test our spiritual wings.
Jesus looks to us and says, “Come to me.
I am the door. I am the way.” He continues to give us those Ready…Fly…Set! moments. As we gain more spiritual stamina and
endurance, He increases the distance that we are expected to fly. However, He is always ready to pick us back
up should we fall to the ground.
At some point, after reading this, go
outside and look around in the air for a bird gracefully floating on the
wind. Think about what it took for that
bird to become strong enough to soar through the skies with such grace and
ease. Then, keep in mind that Jesus is
like the parent that kicked that bird out of the nest, keeping a watchful eye
while we learn to flap our spiritual wings that will one day carry us high
above the ground. Years after, those
wings may be feeling a little tired or momentarily weakened. The words of our Savior till always be
available for us when we need those Spiritual Flight Refreshment Courses!
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