Free!

Almost daily I walk a distance of 200m, either by finding a “victim” that will steer my wheelchair, while I walk behind it in small stages, holding myself onto it or by using a wheeled walker. These little outings are good for me on various levels.

One sunny day while being on tour again, I heard a nervous chirping in one of our garden beds. I moved a little closer. That’s when I saw it: A thrush. It had gotten completely entangled in a net, that we put on our blueberry bushes, in hopes of harvesting some. But now it had somehow become the doom of this thrush. Quickly I called my husband who tentatively freed the very anxious bird from the net. It turned out to be a difficult task as the panicky bird had gotten completely entangled. Once freed, my husband let go of the little fellow … only for it to fly right into another obstacle, so that it had to be freed once again. At last, the bird flew away and we hope that it is doing well.

Aren’t we often caught as well? In a net that has a different name for each one of us: Sorrow, fear, agonizing thoughts, envy, bad habits, sin …? And just like the little bird we try to get free on our own strength. But unfortunately, these efforts often only get us entangled even more – deeper and deeper. Jesus on the other hand wants to be our savior, our deliverer! He wants us to present the “net” to him, get quiet and let HIM do it. But we tend to flutter around, being afraid of the deliverer and getting ourselves right into the next disaster. At least that’s what happens to me time and again. While trying to accomplish it on my own with a lot of effort, in reality I get stuck even more. I don’t let Jesus do the rescuing, that he so much wants to take on.

My wish for you and me is, that we learn to be quieter, letting Jesus do “his thing”. So that we can say:

We have escaped like a bird from a hunter’s trap; the trap is broken, and we are free! Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 124:7-8 (©Good News Translation)