The random thoughts of a Christian parrot
My owner recently had one of those ancestry DNA tests done to find out about his origins. And the results were very interesting. He turned out to be mainly English, but he also had some Spanish, Eastern European, Irish, French, and Belgian blood in his system. And perhaps most interesting of all, he turned out to be 5% Viking. So what do these results really say about him? Well, probably not a great deal because most humans have a hotchpotch of ancestral threads in their make-up. It’s a bit different for me. I’m a Senegal Parrot so I guess that my DNA is 100% Senegalese!
But should we feel any different about ourselves when we find out about our ancestors? The people that have helped to shape our colour, our appearance and perhaps some aspects of our personality? Well, sad stories from the past can make us feel incredibly grateful for all of the things that we enjoy in our lives today. And the fact that we are here at all is nothing short of a miracle. Because so many ancestral chains have been broken by sickness, by plagues, and wars; …….. by drought, by starvation, by infertility and by tragedy in childbirth; ……. by accidents, by a lack of medical knowledge, by climatic changes, by freak weather conditions; ……..by migrations and journeys that ended in tragedy, and by dangerous animals and dinosaurs that have preyed upon human beings and parrots throughout the millennia. By rights, hardly any of us should be in existence. We shouldn’t have had the chance to be hatched or born. And yet here we all are! And every one of us that is breathing oxygen upon the Earth’s surface today has literally won the world’s greatest lottery! Even if you think you’re having a dreadful day. And it would take a very gifted statistician to work out the odds of us ever coming into existence.
Photography: Pexels
We all need to remember just what an opportunity we’ve been given. The miracle of life! The miracle of our existence. The chance to develop, to grow and to become the unique and remarkable individuals that we all are. The chance to do something good for the world! The chance to give love and kindness, patience and help where they are needed. The chance to ask questions about why we are here; where we are heading; what is the point of our existence? Our Earth is packed full of so many miraculous things, if only we stop and open our eyes to look at them. And yet, all of the time, we are reminded of the brevity and fragility of life as we know it. Through the passing of our loved ones; the stories in the media; the deterioration of our own health…..
So we need to grab the opportunity of every single day! Grab it for all we are worth, because we are riding on the wave of a miracle. And hopefully, we can step outside the mundanity of the human condition, and start to understand our place in God’s world. Both the journey we are on; the things we must do; and the path we need to tread during the rest of our days here on Earth.
So, thinking about today, do you feel as though you have just won the lottery? Are you grateful to God for your life? Do you echo the joyous voice that features in so many of the Old Testament Psalms? For example, Psalm 146 reads:
“Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, my soul!
I will praise him as long as I live;
I will sing to my God all my life.”
(Psalm 146, verses 1-2).
Despite all of the troubles and uncertainties and bewilderment which characterise this world, is your faith so strong that you can latch onto these words and say that’s exactly how I’m feeling? Because I know what awaits me at the end of my life?
It’s a miracle that you are here, reading this blog. But it will be an even greater miracle when you go on to experience eternal life in Heaven, -all because Jesus loves you so much, that He died to save your soul. Yes, your soul……………………………
Photography: Pexels
That is the ultimate miracle. Alelujah!