Psalm 119: 12-16 - " Praise be to you , O Lord ; teach me your decrees. WITH MY LIPS I RECOUNT all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

In Real Life - God Can Use Even a Bird to Remind You to Ask

           This summer my husband and I went to a marriage retreat. While the whole weekend was refreshing and the teaching great, there was one simple thing that touched my heart the most in such an unexpected way. My husband and I sat outside that Saturday morning for breakfast. To our surprise quite the little character of a bird hopped on top of our table out of nowhere. He was brown, white chested and had almost dark rings around his eyes. He reminded me of a little bandit. He sat there in confidence in front of my husbands plate, cocked his head to the right and gave a tweet. 
          I looked at my husband surprised , the tone of his tweet was asking. It wasn't reserved but it wasn't demanding. It's like he was simply saying, " here I am , please !" My husband kindly tore off a bit of potato and put his hand out to the little bird. He took it in his beak confidently and flew off. Not but two minutes later he was there again perched in front of my husband, cocking his head to the side and giving his one confident tweet of request. He was like no other bird I have ever seen. I sat back in my bistro chair chuckling with my husband over our sweet little visitor at breakfast that morning.Something about him stood out above the rest.
          I looked around our table. There were other birds there too. Most of them were hopping on the ground picking up fallen pieces of other people's breakfast leftovers from the morning. A few sat in the trees not even bothering to try. And of course there was a bigger bird squawking at the others and chasing them off, rudely cutting in front to get the best for himself. But our little bird simply asked. 
         Walking back to our room I was really touched by such a simple but memorable example to ask. Our sweet little bird was reminding me of a scripture I have known for many years Hebrews 4:16  " Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need." I can still see his little bandit mask, his head cocking and hear his sweet, but expectant tweet. He somehow knew that my husband would not deny his request. How much more will our God hear when we ask. Not shyly, but not demanding just assured that he hears us, that he will answer us in His perfect way 1 John 5:15  " If we know that He hears us in whatever we ask we know that we have the request that we have asked of Him"
           Our little bird had a need that morning and he asked my husband to meet it, unlike all the other birds ,he asked. Mat 7:7 " Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you"    I looked for our little bird the next day at breakfast, but he was nowhere to be found. He was only a demonstration and a reminder to me about bringing my needs before a loving God.
           Do you need a reminder to approach Gods throne with confidence and trust. I know I did that morning. You know God is so faithful to us. What a loving God that he would beckon us to ask. I can take a lesson from that little bird,I don't need to scurry on the ground begging for something, anything dropped down, leftovers.Or not to be lazy and perch up in a tree pretending my needs don't exist. Also to not be a bully and push others out of the way that I might get the first and best, caring for only my needs and belittling others. The lesson he gave me was to remember Jesus said ask. Plain, simple, to the point. If you happen to be eating breakfast outdoors one morning and a little bird perches on your table, cocks his head to the right and tweets one simple tweet. Do me a favor, thank him and give him a potato from me.