DON’T
CAGE MY SONG!
Luke 4:18-19
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the
Lord.
The joyful and almost intrusive song of
a Texas Mockingbird
comes from a slender-bodied gray bird. They apparently pour all their color
into their personalities. They sing almost endlessly, sometimes even at night.
They go on learning new sounds throughout their lives. The song is a long
series of phrases, with each phrase repeated 2-6 times before shifting to a new
sound; the songs can go on for 20 seconds or more. These are the joyful sounds
of freedom!
Archibald
Rutledge tells the story that as a young boy he was always catching and
caging wild things. He particularly loved the sound of the mockingbird, so he
decided to catch one and keep it so he could hear it sing any time.
He found a very
young mockingbird
and placed it in a cage outside his home. On the second day he saw a mother
bird fly to the cage and feed the young bird through the bars. This pleased
young Archibald. But then the following morning he found the little bird was
dead.
Later young Arch
was talking to the renowned ornithologist Arthur Wayne, who told him,
"A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes take it
poisonous berries. She evidently thinks it better for one she loves to die
rather than live in captivity." --James S. Hewett, Illustrations
Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 225.
We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed. (The Declaration of Independence)
Dear
Lord, having been set free from the cage of sin by thy mercy, let me sing my
song long into the night. AMEN
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