A few days ago, I went outside to the yard. They called it at 8 o'clock in the morning, so it was nice and bright. The yard consists of a pretty decent-sized grassy area to walk, jog, and on which to play soccer. It also has a basketball court and an area where you do pull ups and all sorts of tiresome stuff. My friend and I planned to do pull ups and to walk around. The whole yard is surrounded by two razor fences. Between the two razor fences there's some gravel to walk on (only for the guards). Beyond the second fence, water surrounds the whole prison, and beyond the water there are open fields. Well, when we were walking I saw this little bird on the gravel in-between the fences. The bird caught our attention because she seemed to be talking to us, so my friend and I started talking back to her. She was flapping her wings and doing some kind of dance. My friend was asking if he can sacrifice her as a sin offering, to which I said a big "NO!" She talked and danced for a long time. A little while later we decided to go back and do more pull ups. We got to the other side, and as we started doing pull ups someone came up to us wanting to know what we were looking at near the fence. I told him about the cute, little bird who didn't know what she was doing. I gave him her description, and he knew exactly what kind of bird she was (shows my lack of knowledge in ornithology [and I may have asked around what the study of birds is called just for this letter]). “A Killdeer”. "Did she spread her wings and walk?" he asked. I said, "Yes." "She has an egg somewhere near, then. She was just creating a distraction so that her egg could be safe. That's what they do." I said, "What? I thought she was just a little cuckoo in the head." "She got you, didn't she?" he replied. I turned to my friend and asked a question to which I already knew the answer to: "Did we just get tricked by a cute, little bird?" We sprinted to the other side, where the bird was. She was still there, dancing and talking, creating a distraction. So, we started looking for the egg and sure enough, there it was lying near the fence. It was so close that if we wanted we could have touched it, but we decided not to. A few minutes later we bid farewell to the courageous and caring mother and her baby and headed back for the barracks.
That evening I called my sister and told her about the bird and her baby. After the call I went back to my cell. It was dark and lonely. So, I reached for the most familiar and restful thing I have: my Bible. I just opened it and stared at it for a minute. It was then when my LORD Jesus spoke to my heart. He said " Remember the bird? Remember how she got in harm’s way to protect her offspring? She learned that from her Creator. She learned it from ME. I did the same for you. When you were lying in your filth, helpless and defenseless, close to the fence, I spread my wings on the CROSS, taking all the condemnation coming your way on me so you can have life. Now live for ME." I blinked. I was humbled and joyful. For HIM to see me mended, HE was torn. And mended I was, because of HIM.
"He forgave us all our sins, cancelling our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; HE has taken it away, nailing it to the CROSS." - Colossians 2:13-14.
"He saw me to the bottom and loved me to the skies" ---- Tim Keller.
