A WINGED DISTRACTION

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. 

 

 

Lonely Places

    I have a Hispanic friend in Christ here who is 64 years old and is in love with playing soccer. Though he is a little slow, he still outweighs us in Skills every time we go outside to play. He is also a diabetic. A few weeks ago, he was not feeling great. Normally he stays in good shape, but that day he was sweating and acting differently. He went and told the officers how he was feeling, just to hear them say to put in a medical request. Ten minutes later he had a stroke. He was taken to the infirmary. Thankfully his life was spared but something changed. When he walked in the barracks we all noticed the change, the left side of his face was now drooping. His speech was very unclear, and his left eye nearly shut. When I first saw him my heart hurt, and I was angry. I went to God, and asked him to heal that man. My mind was filled with questions, and my heart filled with desperate cries. A couple of days later God reminded me of a story.

    In Mark 1: 40–45, Jesus healed a man with leprosy. At that time, the lepers stayed in lonely places, castrated from society. They were labeled unclean and were not allowed in any sort of gatherings. Babies cannot live without touch, yet lepers were forced to. People thought lepers were cursed by God, but in the story the leper comes to Jesus, breaking all the social codes and asking Jesus to heal him. Jesus was compassionate.  He reached out his hand and touched the man and made him clean.

    I read the story in this prison cell, and I see myself as this leper who used to roam around the lonely places. I committed a crime and now I am castrated from society. I have been living without the touch of my loved ones. Some people consider us prisoners cursed by God. Sometimes even we consider ourselves cursed. But Jesus reached out his hand and touch the man. Why? I know that Jesus can heal without touching. He can heal by words and even just by a thought. So why did he touch the man? Because this leper was starving for love just like my brothers and me. Jesus did not touch the leper because his body needed it, but because his soul needed it. So often I have longed for physical freedom and healing but ignored the touch of Jesus. Often, I wanted God to move in my time so that when he didn’t, I counted his silence as his absence. So often I have been wrong. I prayed for my friend’s healing, but it has not happened yet.  Instead, a different kind of healing took place. He has been reading his Bible more. He has been praying more. His talk and smile are different now because he talks about Jesus more. 

    Being in captivity I have experienced similar things to leprosy. Yet when I asked for physical freedom and healing, God gave me much more. The day I got arrested, I promised God that I would follow Him wholeheartedly if He would set me free. He saw through me and knew that I was lying. If He would have physically saved me that day, then I would have been eternally lost. Since He kept me lost in the jail, I found Jesus and gained eternity. In this Lonely Place, Jesus reached out and touched me. Because of Him, I do not roam around lonely places anymore. Now I tell people how Jesus touched me and swapped places with me by taking my Lonely Places and lavished me with His freedom. 

    In verse 37, Peter says something profound that resonates with any and every person that walked this earth, “everyone is looking for you.” The life I used to live was filled with immorality, hypocrisy and deceit. I was trying to fill the emptiness that only Jesus can fill. In my inmost being I was looking for Jesus all along. But now, “I found the one my soul loves” (Songs of Solomon 3:4).

 

    “Without You, Jesus, my soul flies like a bird without a nest.”  - My Hispanic soccer-loving friend.