Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 February 2006 05:06:48
I'm hoping to hear some more parables with birds... this is not one, but it partially explains my interest in our feathered friends.
When I was a young lad, living on a farm, I had a couple of air rifles. It was legal then, and I used to shoot birds that were raiding the family fruit trees. There was a large fig tree near the back door and when the figs were ripe, there was always an invasion of little birds called “ring-eyes” or “silver-eyes”. I can hear their distinctive little call in my mind as I write this. They were pretty but their pointy little beaks ruined the figs so my Dad used to send me out to shoot them. I was a good shot.
When I was not so young, and the air rifles had long been handed in and melted down by the authorities, I used bird netting to keep similar ring-eye invasions at bay from my favourite plum trees. These cheeky little birds would find the smallest gap and get inside the netting. After they had ruined many of the plums, they wouldn't be able to find the same place to get out. So, picture this... a net around my plum tree keeping a few birds INSIDE so they could eat the delicious plums and the net was protecting the birds from me.
This really frustrated me. One time after trying desperately to get three birds out by chasing them back and forth to go through an opening... I lost it, I started hitting the net with a stick, I completely demolished the crop of plums and killed two birds. How stupid was that? I caught the third bird in my hand and as I looked at this frightened little thing, the scripture about welcoming strangers into your home came to me. Remembering the passage goes something like, welcome strangers into your home because you never know you may welcome an angel, the thought suddenly popped into my mind that there might be some birds that are angels and I should be welcoming them.
Well, I know that's weird, and I wasn't overcome with guilt or anything but that thought stays in the back of my mind and I look at birds a bit differently. In fact I have developed a real love for them... I put out scraps for the crows, but I love plums more and still put bird netting up.