THE BIRD'S LESSON

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 30, 1879

THE BIRD'S LESSON.

“Thy right hand hath holden me up.” Ps. 18:35.

A LITTLE bird came fluttering against my window one dark night. I raised the window, and it came in, but, dazzled by the light, flew wildly about, dashing against whatever happened to be in its way. Fearing it would injure itself, I caught and kept it until morning, and then let it go. The thoughts suggested by this apparently trifling incident have helped me so many times, that I have come to regard that little bird as a divinely appointed messenger to teach me a lesson of faith and trust. Could it have reasoned—as for aught I know it could and did—while I held it firmly in my hand, must not its thoughts have been: “Alas! alas! it is all over with me now. One of those terrible creatures that I have always so dreaded, has got me at last. He holds me in a grasp of iron. My frantic struggles are as nothing. Good-by to my free and happy life. It is gone forever.”

Could it have understood my intentions in regard to it, could it have realized that never in all its life had it been so perfectly secure from all its enemies, quickly would its little heart have ceased its wild throbbings. It would have put its head under its wing and gone to sleep, as peacefully as when sheltered by its mother's wing, upon its native bough.

So, when my plans have been thwarted, every way hedged up, and when nothing has remained for me but to be still and wait, and wonder what the Lord could mean by his strange dealings, it has been given me to feel that more lovingly, wisely, and firmly than I held that bird, the Lord's hand was holding me; that my good only, and my highest good, was the sole aim and object of the painful discipline through which I was called to pass.

I felt sad as the bird spread its wings, and with a quick, glad cry, flew swiftly away. Had it learned to trust and confide in me, how gladly would I have been its friend and protector! Do we not often thus grieve our Heavenly Father, by rushing eagerly and thoughtlessly away from the loving hand that has been patiently trying to restrain us from evil and lead us to a higher and better life?— Christian at Work.