Lessons From Birds
I want to share a post my animal rehabber daughter Alycia Neighbours shared on Facebook recently.
Today at work I was giving our aviary birds their food and water. One of the items is some fresh berries and I usually cut most to bite-sized pieces. Some of the blueberries were pretty small, so I left them whole.
In the aviary are four grackles who recently graduated to flying free in the aviary to prepare them for outside life when it comes time for release. As I put the food down, they all four each grabbed a whole blueberry as if it was the biggest prize of their lives. They chased each other around a bit never once dropping their berry. Then came the task of actually eating the berry.
One literally just gulped it down.
One put it between his toes and pecked it.
One beat it against the wood floor.
One put it back in the dish and squished with his beak until it flattened.
All of them were super proud and went back for seconds and thirds.
All of them got to eat their berry. Each one had a slightly different method, but they got the job done.
What a beautiful lesson for us humans when we find ourselves struggling to do things the same way as someone else and feeling like we are a failure somehow if our efforts aren’t identical. It’s never about the angle we choose to tackle something, but rather our result and the prize of accomplishment. #embraceyourberry
I am not sure I need to even add anything, but just want to ask if you’ve ever thought (fill in the blanks):
- I wish I could do ______________ like she can
- Shouldn’t we all think/act/do it ______________ this way?
- Why does that person do __________________?
- How come we don’t all do _______________ the same way?
The body of Christ is made up of all different kinds of humans with different personalities, giftedness, callings, passions and all kinds of uniqueness. And each person is a necessary part of the whole. Praise the Lord, we are not all the same because we’d never complete any task! Where I am weak, someone else comes along with strength. When I am not passionate about a need, someone else comes along who is.
Be content with how God has created you to serve Him, and how He has created those in the body of Christ you belong to.
You get the picture! Scripture confirms that we are to be unified in Christ while unique in how we obediently walk out our faith to make up a body that has all the parts necessary to function for His glory! (Check out 1 Corinthians 12 for example.)
Let’s celebrate each others passions, strengths and gifts, especially when they different than ours!
P.S. If you missed Alycia’s testimony, click HERE!
Banner photo by Qurratul Ayin Sadia on Unsplash
