Pages

Thursday, May 31, 2018

DON’T CAGE MY SONG!


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

No comments:

Post a Comment