The Grace Journal

There's a Bird on my Window

There's a bird on my window

Fighting to get in

He jumps and flutters

And struggles against the pane

What is he searching for?

What does he need?

Why does he beat his breast 

Against the glass?

Does he want what I have?

Four walls, warmth, and food?

Does it look better

From the outside looking in?

But doesn't he know

Doesn't he understand

On the outside he is free

With wings to fly anywhere?

In here, he would be a prisoner

In here, he would be caged.

He is where is should be

If he just chose to see it.

See this little guy? This is the second morning he has spent on my bedroom window. He jumps and throws himself against the glass, before resting a moment and then trying again.

Staring at him for the last couple of days gave me this thought: Why Am I like this bird?

Throwing myself against the pane of expectations and dreams and hopes. All I am doing is hurting myself and wasting time looking through a window to a place that is not meant for me, while ignoring the whole world I have on my side of the glass.

This bird has wings...he could fly anywhere. Be with other birds. Eat worm. Find berries. Find love. Start a family. 

But instead....he is painfully beating himself against the window...striving to be in a place that once he was there...would only be a cage and he would lose the ability to fly the skies of the world.

Why are we like that sometimes? We throw ourselves against the window pane of success or praise or admiration or passion or acceptance...not realizing that once we got there..we are trapped in a cage of our own doing. We lose our ability to fly...to be free...to see the world through God's eyes.

Today...you and I can choose...freedom or captivity...joy or sorrow...life or death.

Because...you see...if this little bird continues to make this choice to try to enter my house through this window...to strive for something that is not meant  for him...HE WILL DIE. Or at the very least, become malnourished to the point where he no longer has the strength to hold on and HE WILL FALL. 

We are the same...in the end...it is either life or death. We choose...relationships live or die...our spirit lives or dies...our joy lives or dies...just by where we CHOOSE to keep our focus....

looking in the window of someone else's house or looking into the vast open world that is our own life.

Choose Carefully. Choose Daily. Choose Life.

XOXO,

KERI