5/8/2007
Author: Devin Pickard
Title: May 8, 2007
Last week there were five of them. As of this writing, there is only 1 of them. Last week, there were five eggs in a nest behind a wreath on our front porch. Now there is only 1. The other four eggs have been replaced by four new baby birds. These four new creatures are currently getting used to life here on planet earth on this strange family’s porch while all the while encouraging their last sibling to crack that shell and join ‘em. The kids and I go out there at least two or three hundred times a day to check the progress of our newest family members. You know what we see every time we look in that nest? We see four baby birds with their beaks wide open waiting for momma bird to give them something to eat. They can’t do it for themselves. They are helpless. They can’t fly, they can’t waddle, they can’t do anything but huddle together and hope some responsible bird is paying attention. They will die if that responsible bird, mom, doesn’t come home with the bacon, or worm as it is. The point is this, they are totally dependant on another for their survival. Does this sound familiar at all?
Most of us at one time or another have willingly taken part in the most foolish of all experiments. This project is usually called “I Need Nobody But Myself”. Generally, the experiment begins when things are going great. All the bills are getting paid, nobody that we love is sick or even has a sniffle, all of our teams are winning, and the boss loves everything that we are doing at work. We become, we think, self-sufficient. We need nobody and everybody needs us. We are all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-encompassing. Everything that we touch seems to turn to gold and then...WHAM!...life happens when we least expect it. It cold-cocks us when we have our heads turned looking at all of the gold that we have stored in our garage. Suddenly, the bills aren’t getting all paid, everybody that we love is sick, all of our teams start losing and we get fired because the boss found someone who can make better gold than we can.
God has a way of helping us to remember that we are no more than those birds on our front porch. Sooner or later, we find ourselves in this little nest of ours with our mouths wide open waiting for any morsel that happens to come our way. We come to realize that without God, that morsel will never come. Without God, we like those birds, would wither and die. Abraham....Moses....David....Job.....Peter....Saul.....Jesus; they all realized that without God, they were helpless. Don’t you think that if a man who parted the Red Sea and the very man who sits at the right hand of God realized this fact that maybe we should too?
Not only are we dependant on God, but we are also dependant on one another. Life would be a sad existence without family, friends and loved ones. Almost every day God opens the door to a new possible relationship in our lives. Most of us just want to barely crack the door open or look through the peep-hole to see who it is and what they are bringing with them before we roll out the welcome mat. It is my belief that God sends the people our way he does for a reason. I think it’s because he knows we have the ability to minister to these people if we will only choose to do so. They may initially come to be dependant on us but in the end, it may be we who are dependant on them. This last weekend, we had a car-wash for a new friend in need. Today, some of us will stand beside a mother with a dying newborn in her arms. Later this week, it will be something else. Next week, it will be something else again. We never know what or who waits around the next corner. This we do know. God has COMMANDED us to take care of one another. That does not mean just fellow Christians or church friends. That means everyone, period. The last time I read my Bible, I didn’t see anywhere where Jesus checked somebody’s church membership card before he offered to help.
Go the extra mile - Devin