The random thoughts of a Christian parrot
Even by parrot standards, I’m really rather small. Approximately nine inches from head to tail. And when I think of myself as one small bird on the face of this planet, then I can feel terribly small. Rather like an insignificant ant, or a fly or even a speck of dust. And for some humans, as well as parrots, life events can squash us down into believing this. We ask questions such as: “What am I doing here?” “Would anyone notice if I wasn’t here anymore?” “Does my existence really matter?” And then that old chestnut comes around: “What is the purpose of my existence? Am I simply a statistic?”
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Lots of us struggle to find a real identity and sense of purpose in life. Some of us can become the butt of cruel jokes. Somebody once asked me what you get when you cross a parrot with a centipede. The answer was a “walkie talkie.” I was mortified!
And it can be particularly hard for people like a friend of mine… when she, like so many others, leave their own country to move across the world to a place where they don’t know anyone. That’s an incredibly brave and difficult thing to do.
But you know, it’s when things are stacked against us, or when we feel unimportant or insignificant, that God loves us the most. He’s not so interested in people that have big egos or power-complexes, or who shout so that the world comes running to them. No, God through Jesus here on Earth, placed a great emphasis upon the poor, the humble, the lowly and the suffering. Those “insignificant specks of dust” that society can so easily ignore or trample upon. Beggars, rough sleepers, the disabled, the paralysed, the dying, and even the ladies of the night. People that were alive, but barely keeping their heads above water.
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And so, when it came for Jesus to choose His first disciples, He didn’t look in the direction of the rich or famous, the powerful or the most popular members of society. No, He decided to recruit some humble fisherman. Simon, James and John. Men that probably hadn’t received a proper education, and who were existing pretty much at a subsistence level. If they caught fish, they ate. If they didn’t, they went hungry.
Jesus chose them ahead of everybody else. And in so doing, and through the time He spent with the poor and lowly in society, Jesus tells us loud and clear that WE ALL MATTER. We matter very much. In Luke 12, verses 6-7, Jesus says:
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
We can be insignificant in human terms. But it’s not human terms that count. Irrespective of our health, our intelligence, our worldliness, our human standing, and perhaps most importantly, irrespective of our past transgressions, we are still loved, valued and cherished by Jesus and God.
After all, God went to all of the trouble of creating us in the first place. We are His invention, His creation and His unique beings. So never feel small, alone, or forgotten. God loves us and cares for us, warts and all, whoever and wherever we may be!
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