To the Rescue

As I walked from the kitchen to the landing at the top of the stairs that lead to the garage floor, I noticed a female hummingbird flying hither and yon near the high ceiling of the garage. I had no idea how long she’d been trying to find her way to the outside. And I didn’t have time to help her since I needed to arrive on time at the doctor’s office.

When I returned an hour or so later, she was still flying around and around even though I’d left the double-car garage door open. I knew the tiny hummer was exhausted and panic-stricken. Yet, I didn’t know how to help her. Even if I had taken a broom and tried to usher her toward the opening, I was too short to get it near her.

I prayed, “Lord, help me think of a way to help her.”

Then this idea popped into my mind: She’ll be attracted to the red single-stem tulip in a red vase in the living room.

I hurried to get it. I placed it on the small table in the garage. Afterward, I stood on the landing for a minute or so to see what she’d do. She continued flying around and around.

Then I thought, I can put water in the base of the hummingbird feeder I washed this morning.

I followed through with that idea, feeling quite proud of having come up with two creative solutions. When I returned to the landing, the little hummer was trying to sip from the silk flower. Even though she found nothing nourishing there, she was able to see the way out of the garage. In a flash, she was gone.

As I brought the vase and flower and the base of the feeder inside, I said, “Thank You, Father, for helping me save one of Your tiny creatures.”

I’m like that tiny bird. I sometimes get myself into situations that I don’t want to be in, situations that I never intended to be in and can see no way out of. When that happens, I am so thankful for those God sends to rescue me. I am especially thankful He sent His Son to set me free from the sin that entangled me and would have resulted in spiritual death and separation from God for all eternity. 

Connection

Around 7:30 one morning, I walked outside my house and paused a moment on the driveway before beginning my daily walk. Like the doe I wrote about in the previous blog post, I needed to make sure no danger was lurking nearby.  

Much to my surprise, when I looked to my right, I saw the right rear flank of a deer, but the rest of its body was hidden by scuppernong vines. I readied my cell phone camera and then coughed softly, hoping the slight noise would startle the deer just enough to cause it to reposition itself but not enough to make it bolt. My tactic worked.

The deer backed up a bit in order to see the source and location of the noise.                                                                                                                    

I gasped with delight, not fear, when I saw a young buck. He stood stone still while I snapped a couple of photos. After I lowered my phone, we continued to make eye contact with each other for several seconds before he fled toward his home in the woods.

As I began my walk, I continued to feel the joy of that momentary connection. I thanked God for it—and the photos! I remembered that God wants all His creation to live in harmony. But since sin entered the world ages and ages ago and disrupted the peace and harmony and replaced it with antagonism, the creatures experience only rare and fleeting moments of connectedness (and trust!) that God desires to be the norm.

Innumerable reversals will occur one future day when God sets all things right. The prophet Isaiah mentioned many of them, including these:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

The leopard shall die down with the young goat,

The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them….

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD

As the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11:6-9, NKJV

 

It’s hard to imagine such peace and harmony, such absence of fear and danger and aggression, isn’t it?

But all those miracles, and countless others, will happen when God says the time is right. Until then, I relish even brief moments of connection.

A Demonstrated Love

Through the years, I’ve happily taken hundreds (perhaps thousands) of photos of birds of all sizes and species in their natural habitats. Even so, I’m not as “smitten” with birds as birders are. For example, avid bird watchers have extensive knowledge of birds and can identify them by sight and/or by sound—and can even mimic their vocalizations.

Bluebird in my neighbor's yard

But Mr. Al Larson, whom I’d very much like to meet, takes his love of birds, particularly bluebirds, a giant step beyond that of avid birders and photographers. He DOES something to help the birds survive and thrive! In the video* I watched on YouTube, Mr. Larson, age 97, was still building nesting houses for the bluebirds. At the time the video was made, he’d built and placed over 350 nest boxes, many of which he continues to monitor. He estimates he's helped over 40,000 nestlings. Thus, he’s affectionately and widely known as “The Birdman of Idaho.”

As I watched the video again and again, I realized that many of us who profess to “love” birds actually do very little to help them. Mr. Larson, on the other hand, demonstrates his love for them by quietly and faithfully taking actions to benefit them. 

As I thought about that, I remembered that the Bible says that when we love someone, we are to do more than just talk about how much we love them. Like Mr. Larson, we are to do something that demonstrates our love. That's what God did when He sent His Son to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. You see, we’re all sinners, even the best of us, and no matter how good we try to be, we can never, by our own efforts, be good enough to be invited into the presence of the Holy God. Thankfully, God saw our plight and then demonstrated His great love for us by making a way for us to live in His presence for all eternity. God sent Jesus, His Beloved Son, to earth to die in our place, to undergo the punishment (death) we deserved. Once we accept God’s gracious gift (Jesus’ payment of our sin debt), then God not only forgives our sins but He also adopts us into His family! As His holy and deeply-loved children, we get to love Him and enjoy Him—now and throughout all eternity.

Amazingly, God did all this for us even when we weren’t seeking for Him any more than the bluebirds are seeking for Mr. Larson. But God, like Mr. Larson, looked through the lens of love and found a way to save us. Oh, how grateful we should be!

Sadly, not everyone accepts God’s gracious gift. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t, can you? Why, even the bluebirds are wise enough to accept Mr. Larson’s gift. They just happily settle into the safe home he lovingly provides for them. Shouldn’t we receive God’s gift to us?

*Click here to watch the video about Mr. Larson: https://vimeo.com/350127646

Scriptures referred to in this post:

John 3:16

Romans 3:10

Romans 5:8

Romans 6:23

Romans 10:9, 20

Ephesians 1:4

Ephesians 2:8-10

1 John 1:9

1 John 3:18

1 John 4:19

Freedom Is Available!

On a recent vacation, my husband and I stopped at the Maine State Prison Showroom, a store we’d visited on a previous trip to Thomaston, Maine. All the items (over 600 different kinds) in the store were crafted by inmates.

Although I would have loved to buy one of the handcrafted mahogany tables featuring intricate designs and polished to smooth perfection, I could only buy a few items that were small enough to fit into my suitcase: an ink pen with a smooth wooden barrel, a small pad of note paper that had a pen and ink drawing of a lighthouse on the left side of each page, etc.

After we'd left the store, I said, “It’s so sad that such talented people made bad choices that landed them in prison.” 

Indeed, even though some of the inmates were becoming increasingly skilled artisans, the men were still serving time in prison.

I thought of them a few days after we’d returned home when I heard an actor on a TV show say, “No matter how comfortable your prison is, it is still a prison.”

That is so true, isn't it?

We try to hide the prisons our sins put us in, don’t we? For example, if we are in bondage to gluttony, we may dress our bulging body in pretty clothes that hide our excess weight. If we are addicted to shopping, we accumulate clothes or jewelry or furnishing that make us the envy of our friends. But no matter how we camouflage our particular prison/cell/captivity, the truth remains: we are still in bondage to/held captive by a harmful (Dare I say sinful?) habit--with no release date in sight.

But there's good news! Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) expressed it clearly in the song "He Set Me Free!" Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXi_1SD1UN and/or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajnincfXyZY

God's Word

Taken in California in the late afternoon.

I noticed these words on a sign at a church that's beside a road I frequently travel:
The Bible will keep you from sin.
Sin will keep you from the Bible.

I remembered those words the day my daily Bible reading brought me to these words in Psalm 119:9-16:

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to Your word.

With my whole heart I seek You;
let me not wander from Your commandments!

I have stored up Your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against You.

Blessed are You, O LORD;
teach me Your statutes!

With my lips I declare
all the rules of Your mouth.

In all the way of Your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on Your precepts
and fix my eyes on Your ways.

I will delight in Your statues;
I will not forget Your word.

Bad News, Good News!

A Prayer for the Nations

O Father, all the nations of the world are in great, great need of You! Thus, I offer this prayer, based on Your Holy Word:

May Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, give thanks to You forever; from generation to generation may Your people in every nation recount Your praise, may we tell of all Your goodness to and Your great love for Your people. (Psalm 79:13)

May Your people who are called by Your name humble ourselves, and pray and seek Your face and turn away from our wicked ways so that You will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

O Father, as Your Holy Word says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any nation.” (Proverbs 14:34). May people from every nation acknowledge, with great shame, that their nation is filled with sin because individual citizens are filled with sin. Therefore, You cannot—and will not—exalt any such nation, even our own nation. O Father, help us to cry out to You for cleansing and restoration, as David did in Psalm 51:1-2. May his prayer be our prayer:

Have mercy on me; have mercy on us, O God, according to Your steadfast love; 

according to Your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions; 

blot out our transgressions. 

Wash me, wash us, thoroughly 

from our individual and collective iniquity, 

and cleanse each and all of us from sin!

Got a Problem?

As I sing the old, old hymns, which I love to do, I’m often struck by how the “human condition” hasn’t changed very much through the centuries. For example, in the song Tell It to Jesus, which was written by Edmund S. Lorenz in 1876, the writer asks questions that are still relevant to you and me today:

• Are you weary?Are you heavy-hearted?
• Are you grieving over joys departed?
• Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden?
• Have you sins that to men’s eyes are hidden?
• Do you fear the gath’ring clouds of sorrow?
• Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow?
• Are you troubled at the thought of dying?
• For Christ’s coming kingdom are you sighing?

Amazing, isn’t it, how current those questions are? Amazing, too, that the solution is also the same: Tell it to Jesus. In other words, talk to Him about whatever is heavy upon your heart and mind. He will understand. He will help you with whatever issues you’re facing.

~~~~~~~~

I sought the LORD,

and he answered me

and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant,

And their faces shall never be ashamed.

~David (Psalm 34:4-5, ESV)

Thy Servant Is Listening

Although I was tired to the bone, I felt strangely drawn to a Kindle book I’d downloaded that day. So, instead of going to bed, as my tired body wanted to do, I curled up on the sofa, with my Kindle in hand, and began to read J.C. Ryle’s book, A Call to Prayer.

I was immediately captivated (and convicted!) by his words, which he’d written in the 1800's, so much so that I read past midnight and then past 1 a.m.

I realized (1) that the book was no ordinary one, (2) that God intended me to have it, (3) that He was speaking to me through the words He had inspired His servant, J.C. Ryle, to write many years before I was born, (4) that He was making me aware of my sin of prayerlessness, (5) and that He wanted me to confess that sin and turn from it immediately and permanently.

            I confessed that sin (and others!) and then asked God to help me to put Him first in my life, to continue to speak to me, and to help me obey Him.

            I slept soundly that night and then awoke the following morning feeling rested and ready to seek God and to do His will.

            Rather than just offer a quick prayer before I began to read from the Bible, I spent several minutes just talking with my Father and asking Him to speak to me through His Word and by His Spirit. He did!  

The passage that was “next up” on my daily Bible reading plan was 1 Samuel 3, a very familiar story about the young boy Samuel who received a word from the Lord, though such words were rare in those days, due to the fact that no one really wanted to hear what God had to say about anything.

During the night, Samuel heard a voice calling his name. Naturally, he assumed that Eli, the priest with whom he lived, was the one calling him. So, he ran to Eli’s bedside and said, “Here I am, for you called me” (v.5).

Since Eli had not been the one calling the boy, he instructed Samuel to go back to bed. But once again, Samuel heard someone calling his name and hurried to Eli’s bedside, where he learned that it was not Eli who was calling him.

When someone called Samuel a third time, he made another trip to Eli’s bedside. This time, Eli discerned that it was the Lord calling Samuel.

As before, Eli told Samuel to go back to bed, but he also said that if the Lord called Samuel again, Samuel should say, “Speak, LORD, for Thy servant is listening” (v.9).

The Lord did call to Samuel again. And when Samuel said, “Speak, for Thy servant is listening,” the Lord told Samuel what He wanted him to know and to do.

As soon as I’d finished reading those words, I knew that the same Lord who’d spoken to Samuel centuries ago was the One who’d been speaking to me the night before through the words of J.C. Ryle. I knew that the same Lord was the One speaking to me through His Word that morning. I knew that He intended me to obey Him, just as Samuel had.

After an extended prayer time, I felt compelled to go to the computer to write these words rather than do the other tasks that were “calling my name.” The Lord had spoken to me, I listened to Him, and I obeyed. May that continue to be true of me—and of you, Dear Reader.

© 2014 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill

A Sad Demise

As I watched a piece of heavy equipment tear down an old building that had long been an historic landmark in our town, I thought, “This is coming down much faster than it went up.”

According to an article in one of the local papers, those who attended the hotel’s grand opening in 1928 had deemed it “magnificent” and “gorgeous.” For many years, the four-story hotel attracted many visitors to the area and hosted civic club meetings, wedding receptions, showers, class reunions, and so forth.

But the years took their toll on the once grand hotel, and it had stood empty since the early 1990’s. Now, it’s being torn down, saddening many people and greatly altering the landscape.

I thought about the demise of the old hotel one recent morning as I heard a song on the radio that said, in part, “People don’t crumble in a day.” In other words, deterioration is usually a slow process, although when destruction is complete, it seems to have happened quickly. For example, through the years, neglect and the forces of time had been slowly destroying the old hotel. Yet, when the wrecking crews moved in, it was reduced to huge piles of rubble in a matter of hours. In about a week, all the debris had been hauled away, leaving the area ready to be used in a new way.

Similarly, we don’t often see the subtle changes that point to our demise. For example, we often fail to notice how our attitudes and actions are slowly propelling us down the path to pain and/or ruin. But, as the years pass, our condition becomes increasingly obvious. Our health begins to fail or our money runs out or our career ends abruptly or our reputation is ruined because of “little lapses” along the way.

Then, we, like the old hotel, come to an end that neither we nor anyone else expected when we set out upon life’s path. But as the song I heard also says, “It’s a slow thing when you give yourself away” or, to put it another way, when you and I give in to temptations that lead us down wrong paths.

As the Bible points out, there are definite steps that lead to destruction: ”Temptation comes from the lure of our own desires. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death” (James 1:14-15, New Living Translation.)

The King James Version, an older translation, describes the progression this way: “But every man [person] is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:14-15).

So whether we read the older version or a more contemporary one, the path to ruin is easy to understand, isn’t it? Desires. Deeds. Death. Yet, we often don’t see the progression, because, as in the case of the old hotel, deterioration can be imperceptible—on a daily basis. But as time passes, we begin to see how far we’ve gone in the wrong direction, sometimes to the point of total ruin.

Little wonder, then, that the Bible says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do” (Proverbs 4:23, NLT). So, let’s keep watch over our daily choices, habits, and words, for they reflect the desires that are within our hearts.

© 2010 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill, http://www.jgaskill.com/.

Free Indeed!

For a long time, no one dared speak as we looked at the hummingbird sitting stone still in the palm of a woman’s upturned hand. Amazingly, the bird continued to sit there, despite the click, click, click of the cameras in the hands of photographers thrilled to have such an unexpected opportunity to take close-up photos of the tiny bird.Even as we repositioned ourselves to get better shots, the hummingbird remained still, her eyes bright and ever watchful. She appeared calm, despite all she’d been through in the past few minutes.

You see, once she’d been flying free in a beautiful flower garden, zooming from flower to flower to sip delicious nectar. But the moment she decided to fly inside a large bird cage in the middle of the garden, she set in motion an unimaginable chain of events.

Soon large human hands placed a mesh bag over her. They carried her to a nearby table, where she was gently removed from the bag to be inspected and banded. Information about her was recorded on a sheet of paper and a tiny band was placed around one of her legs.

The man who held her then carried her over to a feeder filled with red-colored sugar water and allowed her to drink. All the while, the cameras were click, click, clicking, and the crowd watched with rapt attention.

After she’d satisfied her thirst, the man carried her nearer the crowd to give them a better look at her and to answer the many questions they asked about hummingbirds. After several minutes of that, he walked over to the lady who had been selected, by luck of the draw, to release the hummingbird.The man gently placed it in her hand, giving her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Everyone expected the hummer to fly away instantly, as previous ones had done, but she didn’t. The longer she sat there, the more puzzled everyone became. Finally, someone whispered, “Why doesn’t she fly away?”

“She doesn’t realize she’s free,” the man replied.

That was surprising, since the woman wasn’t preventing the bird from flying away. Her palm was cupped slightly, to encourage the bird to remain, but her fingers in no way confined the bird. She was perfectly free to go, perfectly free to live life as the Creator intended. Yet, she sat there, still feeling trapped when, in reality, she was free.

As I look at the photos I took of the tiny hummer, these words of Jesus come to mind: “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31, 32, New Living Translation, NLT).

Since, as Jesus pointed out, every one of us is (or has been) held captive by sin, we need to know—and live in the light of—this wonderful truth He expressed: “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free” (John 8:36, NLT).

Since “God has purchased our freedom with his blood [shed on the cross] and has forgiven all our sins” (Colossians 1:14, NLT), we who believe in Him are no longer held captive by our sins. We are free indeed to live a good and godly life—as our Creator intended.

©2007 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. To request permission to use, please e-mail her. Additional photos are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnniegaskill/Hummers.