Bird Brained
The beautiful Beaver Creek Chapel with its setting nestled
in the woods beside the rushing river is an ideal place for quiet reflection.
Many events have been attended there since moving to the Vail Valley ten years
ago—weddings, memorial services and concerts. However now that I live just 2
blocks from the quaint chapel, I sometimes just go for a short get-away.
One recent evening my friend Deb and I had been on a walk
through the area, but wanted to have some prayer time together, so I suggested
the chapel. The door was unlocked, so we were in luck. We sat in the quiet
peaceful auditorium and discussed our prayer needs and then began praying, but
there was a distraction.
Thud…thud…thud over and over again. Although engrossed in
prayer I couldn’t help but wonder who or what was knocking on the window. Was
it time to lock the building up and this was a gentle way of getting our
attention? Was it someone we knew hoping to see why we were visiting the
chapel? As we finished praying we found out that it was neither, instead it was
a surprise. A bird perched on a tall branch was flying into the large window at
the front of the building. Multiple times the bird flew from the branch to the
window, trying again and again to get in or through the glass. He was banging
his head against the clear wall with no success.
Where was it trying to go? Did it see something we couldn’t
see? Further examination lead me to the conclusion that although the interior
of the building itself was rather dark there was a small round window on the
opposite wall where the last bit of daylight shone through. Did the bird think
it was an opening to fly through to the other side? Since I can’t read a bird’s
mind I can only make assumptions, but I can make a guess that it hurt the birds
head and as long as he kept trying he would never get through.
There is a saying that is attributed to Albert Einstein
which goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result.”
All that little bird had to do was change his course ever so
slightly and he would be out in the free and open air space.
Sometimes we act like that bird, hitting our heads against
the wall repeatedly expecting things to change or get better or be different.
But if we continue to always do things the same way wanting and hoping it to
have different results we will most likely fail.
God does not change because He is perfect, but He does
expect us to change; so instead of getting stuck in a rut, how about making
changes in your life and start allowing God to transform us into His image.
2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces
contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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