Feeding the birds at the park happens to be one of my family’s pastime. We relish witnessing the birds flock to us when it sees provision being thrown in the air. At first, the birds shy away from getting too close in fear of being harmed. Out of hunger, fear and reservations cast aside, the birds start inching closer. The moment they get close, the struggle to look for food ends as they have their fill on what was intended to feed them.
I am brought back to a memory of my attempt to feed a scavenging bird by the lake. This is not the same lake at the park but the lake in front of our home. I saw what possibly was a Heron scavenging for food. I scurried to the kitchen, grabbed a piece of bread and went outside to feed it. I tossed small clumps of bread into the air to catch its attention. I even went out of my way to follow the bird to let it know it no longer needed to look and dig. But alas, the closer I got, the further it went to keep looking elsewhere for food.
It was then that I got struck with an epiphany. As humans, we tend to be like that bird. God wants to feed us with the “True Bread of Life,” but just like the scavenging bird, we are too busy going about doing our own thing; we try to merit our salvation through good works when in reality, it is attained only by grace- something that can neither be bought nor earned, through faith in Jesus. The hardest part is believing we don’t actually have to work for it. We only have to be willing recipients.
Salvation is freely extended to us through the completed atonement of our sins by Jesus’ death on the cross. It is ours for the taking.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)
Will you accept God’s gift today?
[Originally posted on May 2, 2010- My family no longer live by the lake mentioned on this post (since 12/16).]
“As humans, we tend to be like that bird. God wants to feed us with the “True Bread of Life,” but just like the scavenging bird, we are too busy going about doing our own thing; we try to merit our salvation through good works when in reality, it is attained only by grace- something that can neither be bought nor earned, through faith in Jesus.”
Also, what happens to those people who hear the Gospel and reject it is because demonic blindness that has occurred as spoken about in 2 Corinthians 4:4 which says, In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Amen.
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