A Little Bird Told Me

"Lord I lift your name on high, how I love to sing your praises," the song came from the radio as I listened while my husband was in the store on an errand.  A flock of gulls caught my eye, as they soared, dived and turned glistening wings in a sychronized movement that changed to a new pattern in an instant.  As the notes of the praise song rose, so did the billowing gulls, as if lifted on the strains of the music.

"Let everything that hath breath, Praise the Lord," the scripture says, and it didn't take much imagination to see this in God's flying creatures.  They were doing aerobatics of joy as I watched in awed appreciation.

"Look!" I said to Howard as he got back in the car.  But by that time the birds were disappearing from view over the car, and the song had ended.  "You missed it," I said, and tried to tell him about the aerial display.

We had been noticing long strings and Vs of ducks and geese flying over and wondered if they were headed to the farm pond.  But of course, it was  frozen over, as were all the other inland bodies of water locally.  "We saw a few ducks that had landed on the ice on our pond today," our daughter-in-law, Joanna, said over Sunday dinner yesterday.  "The walked a few steps back and forth, then they flew off."

"It sounds like Noah's dove and raven looking for a place to land," I quipped. Only in reverse, I thought. The were looking for land, not water.

In Matthew 8:20, Jesus said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."  He was trying to present to would-be followers what they would give up to follow Him.

Many today are searching for they know not what.  Nothing seems to satisfy--not possessions, careers, leisure or entertainment.  It is amazing to see the offerings on television that have grown ever more crude and debased.  The "reality" shows are "where it's at," but not just the novelty of huge families or multiples, but now it seems we must laugh at less-cultured people and find hilarity in their off-beat (contrived?) humor.  We gasp at their daring exploits and take vicarious pleasure in their ribald language and expressions.

Many shows present what can only be described as the downright exploitation of children. Whether in pageants, dance performances, or now, a culmination and combination of ignorance, sin, and coarseness in a family held up for ridicule and amusement for their uncouth and irreverent ways, especially painful to see in the six-year-old daughter of a particular reality show.

We would do well  to follow the injunction of Phillipians 4:8 where Paul says, "Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are  pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."  Good advice to lighten your load and make you feel as free as a bird!