Bird Story

Bird Story - Story Time With Mindy

I want to tell you a story.  At my grandparents' farm, there are a lot of birds.  This isn't for any particular reason, unless you count all the birdfeeders.  There is one by the kitchen window, one by the livingroom window, one by the back bedroom window, and a cluster by the sewing room window.  It is this cluster that I want to particularly describe to you.  My uncle is a smart guy and figured out a way to ensure that the small birds, and only the small birds, got to the birdseed.  He was particularly worried about squirrels stealing those birds' food.  So he put up some poles and hung the birdfeeders from them.  Then he put up a round fence with a roof of chicken wiring.  That way the birds could easily step or fly through at their convenience.

One day I was sitting at the window watching the birds happily eating their birdseed.  They flitted to the cage, slid through the holes, and flew to a perch on the birdfeeder or to the ground below in search of birdseed.  It was fun to see the brown, red, yellow, and speckled covered birds happily chirping as they ate. 

Suddenly, a hawk appeared.  It danced around the large cage as the frantic birds all rose in a flutter to fly away.  It had it's eyes on one particular small bird that was on the bird feeder.  The little bird rushed to one side of the cage only to be confronted by the hawk.  It rushed to another side only to have the hawk meet it there.  I watched in horror, silently screaming at the tiny bird to stay inside that cage.  As long as the little bird stayed inside, the large hawk could not touch it.  Deserted and alone, the tiny bird could only stare in terror at it's enemy.  Instinct to flee overtook it's common sense and the bird dashed outside the cage.  Not even a foot out and it was caught in the clutches of the hawk, driven into the ground, and killed. 

I had a hard time understanding why, when the little bird could have been safe, it chose to leave it's haven.  The little bird's worst fears were in sight, but could not have harmed him if he had stayed there.  Instead, it left the safety of the cage and lost it's life.

It seems like there should be a moral to this story.  Something like staying in God's care is where we are safe.  Or perhaps focusing on the bad things around us will lead to unhappiness.  How about not trusting in God to take care of us by doing things our own way instead?  That sounds about right.