The random thoughts of a Christian parrot
I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Parrots are vain! Obsessed with having beautiful feathers. And quite a few humans are exactly the same……….
We can all fall into the trap of judging everything by its immediate physical form. We get sucked in by the allure of beauty, image, wealth, success and “celebrity status.” We can take everything around us at “face value.” But what really lies behind the façade?
I know of a crippled human man who’s in constant pain. He needs crutches and a wheelchair to get around. So if you placed him next to “Mr. Universe 2019”, who would you be more drawn to?
And then there’s dear old grandma who lives on the other side of our house. She’s getting rather frail and forgetful. Put her next to the current World Quiz Champion. Who would you find more interesting to talk to?
Or what about some small parrot that exists in a rusty old cage, or a human struggling to make ends meet, who lives in a tiny bedsit? Line them up beside a self-made millionaire who resides in a huge mansion. Who would you immediately be drawn to?
In God’s world, nothing is quite as it seems. The crippled human in the wheelchair is really a saint because of all the things he’s done for others in his life, despite his sufferings.
And Grandma might not be so good at quizzes these days. But she still shines as a beacon of goodness and generosity towards others.
And what about that rusty parrot cage and the tiny bedsit? Well, they are really “cathedrals of love” because their occupants have allowed them to become filled with the presence of Jesus.
So do we simply take everything at face value? Or do we look a bit deeper? Jesus talked about the people who…. “though seeing, they do not see” and …. “though hearing , they do not hear.” (Matthew 13:13b).
So often, it’s those parrots, people and things that we don’t immediately notice, that really count for everything!