The Dove

Today as I was walking in our church foyer, I noticed a dove come toward a window and hit it in flight.  He sort of brushed that off and hit at it again before settling down on the concrete below the window.  He then looked up at the window as if saying, “What’s going on here?”

Just inside the window was an indoor potted tree.  I think he was trying to land on one of the branches of the tree and didn’t realize that it was on the other side of the glass.  I’m not sure he ever figured it out, but he eventually flew away.

I got to thinking, and even mentioned it to the ones in the office what had happened and how sometimes I feel like that in my days.  Some days it seems like I bang myself against something that I don’t understand and can’t figure out.  I try more than once, but the result is always the same.  Then I sort of back up, look at it, and try to figure it out.  Sometimes I can, and sometimes I just can’t seem to figure out what the roadblock is that is keeping me from doing what I wanted to do.

I’m sure you’ve had the same experience at times.  And maybe your days are more like that of the dove and his experience than you care to think about.  Sometimes it seems that those days just string along four, five, six days at a time.  And we just can’t seem to break free of whatever it is that is keeping us from our goal.

The apostle Paul talks about running a race and finishing as a metaphor of life.  And he talks about that finish as a goal that he has in mind, not only for himself, but for all who call themselves Christians.  He and other writers of the Bible talk about many things that can keep us from finishing…keep us from arriving at our goal.  Those things always, it seems, have to do with sin and separation from God in some shape or form.

And all too often we struggle, fail, and look for what kept us from our goal.  Just like the dove, we don’t see the glass; we don’t see that it is our own sin and shortcomings that keep us from finishing and obtaining the prize.  So we continue banging against it, making true the old adage that says, “Insanity is doing the same things over and over again, but expecting somehow different results.”

Only God can enable us to see ourselves for what we really are; sinners in need of the grace, forgiveness, and mercy of God.  Notice I said “enable.”  He doesn’t force us to see it, but rather makes it possible for us to see it, if we will just take off our blinders and look.

The older I get the more I realize that I have been going through a lot of my life with blinders on and an inability to accurately see the truth of my life.  I think age does that to a person, although it is still God that enables.  Hopefully God will give me enough time to truly see and make those changes.  He’s calling; am I listening?