Like a Baby Bird

Doing some yard work at my grandmother’s house earlier this afternoon, I saw something I felt was worth sharing. For me, it had a lot of meaning, and was very encouraging spiritually. That, and it was gut-wrenchingly cute.

After I had finished parking the lawnmower in the shed, my mom came and told me I should come see something out front where she and my sister were planting flowers. I followed her back up the sidewalk, and grinning, she pointed to the bush growing by the front door.

I leaned over to look, and perched in the bush was the cutest little baby cardinal who ever peeped. Looked like a fuzzy, brown ball of feathers with two beady, black eyes and a beak. Might have been old enough to fly, but he was still young enough to require nourishment from his mother and boy, was he requiring. He peeped and peeped and peeped, mouth agape, calling to Mommy relentlessly. Didn’t even acknowledge my presence as I stood there watching. He might have stopped to look at me once or twice, but he didn’t move from his spot.

Nothing else in the world mattered to him at that moment. What mattered was food. To get food, he had to call Mom. Calling Mom = food, and that’s what he did for at least twenty minutes while I was there, and he could have been peeping for hours before then. It was a simple display of nature; a common event slightly uncommon to a guy like me who sits inside reading books and drawing all the time. To a lot of people, it may not mean much, but it struck a certain chord with me. It made me think, “Why can’t I be like that with God’s nourishment: The Word?”

Lately I’ve been trying to stick with daily devotions in prayer and reading The Bible, but even if I have it in mind to read or pray all day long, I still manage to skip a night every now and then. I grew up getting it drilled into me to read The Bible every day, and I can imagine a lot of you readers were too. So how can I still not be doing it? Sometimes, it’s really easy. Sometimes, I’m pumped for Bible-time. Sometimes, I crave it like a drug. Aaand sometimes…somehow, I just miss it. Other things clog my thoughts and I let Bible-time slide.

I’ve never wanted to set up a specific time for myself to read The Word each day, because I want devotions to feel natural, not mechanical like a chore. Nothing against anybody who does read at such-n-such time every day, I usually just read when I think to read. But wouldn’t our spiritual lives be so much fuller if we called to God for nourishment constantly like baby birds? If nothing else mattered to us but His Word, and we took only what He gave us and didn’t worry about all the stuff going on outside of our tree, wouldn’t life be so much simpler?

Later on, the bird’s mother finally showed up to feed him. He got all excited and hopped up and down on his branch and accidentally fell to the ground, not too far below. Still, he peeped for Mommy, flapping his wings and trying to fly. I want to get that excited about The Word! I want to hunger for it nonstop, and I want to feel like flying when I get it. What’s awesome is that if we live a righteous life in Christ and soak our hearts in The Word, someday, we will soar with angels! Who wouldn’t want that? What’s stopping you? Dust off that Bible and get some Heavenly grub!

I’m gonna go write about werewolves some more.

In Christ,

Luther D. Powell

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