Real Life

I was overjoyed the other morning to see this beautiful mama bird making a nest in my flowering cherry tree right outside my kitchen window.  I had been spending some time with Jesus...listening to his heart for me as I read the Bible and sharing my own heart with him as I talked to him in prayer.  Grabbing a cup of coffee....I saw her...only a few feet between us and a piece of glass.  I stood in awe watching her work...so carefully and diligently....full of amazement at God's creation.

I left her to finish and came back to my spot spread out with Bible and notebook.  But my joy, soon turned to frustration as I heard her banging up against my window.  I was so afraid she was going to hurt herself.  I would hear her trying and trying to fly into the reflection she saw in my window.  Then I would get up and go stand there and pray that she could see that what she was pursuing, wasn't real....I prayed that she would turn around and see real life behind her.  I think she would eventually see me and leave the window alone for a while, but a few minutes later, she would forget the pain that flying into glass had caused and she would try again.  I was so afraid that she was going to wound herself so badly that I would find her on the ground.  I kept going to the window when I would hear her and I would talk to her...."sweet little bird...turn around...everything you need for life is in the other direction....what looks good to you and what you think you see isn't real...it is only going to hurt you....please turn around."

I could not help but think of all the times that I have pursued things or relationships to try and meet the deep desires of my heart.  I would pursue what I thought I needed to make me happy but all the while...I was banging up against a reflection that wasn't real.  Jesus was in the other direction calling to me...praying for me...desiring life for me.  He was there to mend up the bruised and broken places of my wounds...and show me that there is a whole world out there for me to live and grow and fly in....Once I experienced 'real' life in Him...the window of deception didn't look so big and glamorous....in fact, I was able to see it for what it really was.

And this is my prayer for you today...

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Ephesians 1:17-19a

Look to Jesus....He will open your eyes to real life.