I was driving to Decorah Saturday when I noticed a large flock of birds. I was in awe of the incredible creatures God has created as I watched how they dipped and swerved in unison.
Just a little further a bird dipped into my line of travel and hit the windshield. I turned around and went back to see what type of bird I had hit. It was a bluebird. “Oh wow. Of all the species I could have hit it was a bluebird,” I said to myself. Bluebird populations have declined due to encroachment of humans into its native grassland habitats. Bluebird houses have helped, but the bird has not returned to the populations it once knew.
It is a part of our human history that we catch things and keep them in cages for our enjoyment. The song of the bird pleases our ears. Its beautiful colors up close and the intricate lines their delicate feathers create amaze our eyes. The thought crosses my mind. If only it was in a cage this wouldn’t have happened. If only it was in a cage, captive and safe. Where no harm could come to it and where it had food and water all day long. There, seasonal temperatures would not be a factor in its daily routines and no risk of predators, storms, or fast cars buzzing through its world.
To see it that way would be to ignore the God given things. Ignoring the purpose it was created for. That little bluebird would have had to surrender its freedom, the wide open fields. It would have had to give up the adventure of new surroundings everyday as it migrates through the seasons. It would have to relinquish the magnificent ability to fly through the air at incredible speeds turning on a dime in mid-flight. It would forgo finding an amazing array of foods at a banquet table set by its creator. It would have to give up its reason to sing. Experience the sunshine only through wire bars and the only thing it would receive in turn for all that surrender is… safety.
Safety is nothing more than a false sense of security. Believing you can actually manage a better future for yourself by hiding from what you cannot control. Safety is a promise made by those who cannot see beyond themselves. By those who fear dreams, who hide from life itself and those who would sell their souls for a perceived comfort.
The truth is. Safety is a lie. It does not exist. The very God who made you, took a risk that through all of this you might love him! There is no life in safety. It is a prison that holds you till you expire. You will exist never having really lived. It will steal from you the wonder you had as a child and the essence of life itself. No. The bluebird bird was right. In a world filled with dangerous things, it’s worth the risk to fly free!
“Every man dies. Not every man lives” Braveheart
