#78a One flu over the cuckoo's nest(2feb06)

‘Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?’
Mathew 8:26

Swimming in the open sea is not exactly something I hanker after. What lies beneath the deep murky waters of the seas brings to the surface my fear of the unknown.

Some twenty years back, I had the privilege of spending time in two almost adjoining islands in the Indian Ocean(save for a 45 minutes air-journey as the separator); Mauritius(an independent country) and De La Reunion(a French possession).

Like the song Ebony and Ivory.
Reunion Island was materially rich(what with the indulgence of its French masters), but for the first time visitor, the approach to the Island, looked rather foreboding, with its deep dark volcanic colored waters, and still active volcanoes and mountainous terrain.
Mauritius, a materially poor independent country(with textiles and sugar as its main industry, besides tourism), was blessed with charming physical beauty. Mark Twain, the great twentieth century American contemporary writer, described it as Paradise on earth, with its flat luscious lands, surrounded by crystal clear waters and dotted with lovely lagoons.

‘If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all...’
James 1:3

At age 44, it is an interesting meridian. When I was 24, one wished that one would have the youthful vigour of that age, and the material maturity of 42. Some at age 52, find it rather invigorating to date a dainty damsel of age 25.
Yet truly, some call it mid-life crisis. Matter of statistical interpretation, for it is more like past mid-life, given that the average life span of man tend to be closer to the left side of age 75.

‘….That our God may count you worthy of His calling’
2 Thessalonians 1:11

Indeed, it is a blessing that by His grace, God woke us up a little earlier. In lifting the blindness in our hearts, one begin to see life as not an average 75years cycle, to be spent either wallowing away in misery, or wasting away in frivolous lustful pursuits, but a journey of transformation into the image of God, to be made ready for eternity with God.

‘But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal..’
Matthew 6:20

As the world sits on the cusp of the bird flu pandemic, the generally unruffled, unconcerned attitude of most could soon be torn asunder.
It is said that life oftens depict fiction. Similarly, men do exhibit behaviour that seems distinctively reminiscent of our feathery friends.
Some are the like majestic eagle, regal and regaled for its awesome powers, some move a little further down the pecking order and are vulture-like in their behaviour, what we humans term opportunistic. Others waddle around like the pompous penguins, flapping its wings with no sense of purpose in life, and yet some love to stick their head in the hole, like the physically well-endowed ostrich, but with proportionately smaller grey matter.

Bird brained one might be perceived, but truly, as a believer of God and a follower of His beloved son, Jesus Christ, this is the Word of God

‘I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds’
John 12:24

Truly, for the man of the material world, the pursuit of wealth will soon move towards the need to preserve health and life.

Yet,

‘the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world, will keep if for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me…’
John 12:25

Would you be like the now very much extinct Dodo bird(from Mauritius) who in their own understanding thought that the colonials from the Netherlands were bringing them food, not realizing that they are the main menu or would you rather be the much maligned but still much alive cuckoo bird, for to follow Christ is often a route that is way different from the way of the world??

‘’Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me..’
John 14:6

God Blesses

Eng Hieang