The Birds

So, I fooled y’all and set some things to post when I was actually cruising around the sunny Caribbean getting tan.  And it was fun.  And the food was amazing.  And I got to ride bareback on a horse swimming in the ocean…but that’s a story for another day.  Anyway, I did lots of people watching and I have a few stories, but since I have been home, real life has been happening and I haven’t gotten to sit down and write them out.  And I don’t get ice cream here everyday whenever I want it, which is a bummer.

But here is one observation I made on our last morning on the boat.  As we were eating our breakfast outside on the deck of our ship (which was actually now at port), we noticed that the sea gulls were very brave—flying down close to people’s tables trying to steal a little breakfast for themselves. At sea, these gulls were not a problem—probably because we were moving—but on this morning, these flying thieves were bringing to my mind a certain Hitchcock movie.  While thinking about this event afterwards on the flight home, I wrote this little poem:

We tried to shoo them away, the birds

They were eating her breakfast while she stepped away for coffee

One bold sea gull even took her strip of bacon and flew off triumphant

Another left footprints in her eggs

When she returned to her table in the outdoor café

We told her the birds were eating her meal

Disgusted and mute, she left

her entire plate of food sitting, unprotected, irresistible to her flying enemies

And though we continued to chase them off again with hands and voices

they decided the risk was worth taking—some even landing on the table to dine.

So bold. So brazen. So like us.

The reason I write this is because sometimes I think that the world, with all of it’s delicacies, is very enticing to us.  We know some things are sin for us—the Bible tells us, our friends warn us, our spirits cry out to stay away, but still, our hearts and minds lust for that which is not God.  We decide that the risk of severing our intimacy with our Father is worth it—if we can just get a little taste of what we desire.  Like these birds, our appetites hunger for things which we should not have, and we become bold and brazen pursuing our sin. And like the woman, if we continue to chase that which is not God, ignoring warnings and acting triumphant, God will leave us to our own devices and our hearts will become calloused against his Glory.

Think about it.

 

“Hear, O my people, and I will warn you—
   if you would but listen to me, O Israel!
You shall have no foreign god among you;
   you shall not bow down to an alien god.
I am the LORD your God,
   who brought you up out of Egypt.
   Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

“But my people would not listen to me;
   Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
   to follow their own devices.

“If my people would but listen to me,
   if Israel would follow my ways,
how quickly would I subdue their enemies
   and turn my hand against their foes!
Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him,
   and their punishment would last forever.
But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
   with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Psalm 81:8-16