If you are a parrot like me or one of the newly arrived chickens in the garden outside, then life is nice and straightforward. I spend my day doing all things parrot, and they carry on being chickens. Unlike humans, we don’t over-complicate our lives. We don’t have systems or procedures or countless gadgets that dictate the way we spend each day.
Humans have always have a tendency to over-complicate and that’s even reflected in their speech. They talk about being as “hungry as a horse,” about “pie in the sky,” or being “stuffed to the gills” and “drinking like a fish.” Thank goodness that some of them also have “cast iron stomachs”!
And then they talk about “a fat chance” which apparently means the same as “a slim chance”, and about it “raining cats and dogs” (when any parrot can tell you that never really happens). And to cap it all, they put up signs saying “Free Range Eggs” and then expect you to pay for them!
Humans go about their lives enveloped in a fog of their own making and it comes to something when it takes a small parrot or a simple chicken to put them straight on this. But then I remember the words of the Dalai Lama:
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” (Dalai Lama: Exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism).
Jesus was always very simple and straightforward about everything. He used words which could be understood by everyone, -from High Priest to common pauper. And He also knew that humans required the simplicity of children to fully absorb His teaching and His learning.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
(Mark: 10:15)
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation…”
(1 Peter 2:2a).
So I’m very much hoping that my thoughts today are crystal clear, and that it’s not “all Greek” or “Double Dutch” to you. Hopefully you won’t need to “pardon my French”, “bend over backwards” or feel the need to “pick a bone with me.” It’s my wish for everyone to remain “as cool as a cucumber” and to avoid any “storm in a teacup.”
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