Horned puffins are very pretty birds which usually find nesting places on the cliffs of islands off the North American coasts. They have orange-red, sharp beaks, with wide, flat webbed feet of the same color. But the back of their necks is bright yellow, overlapping the fronts of their round heads, which are white on both sides with matching fronts and underparts. The rest of their bodies are black.
Some time ago people were concerned because fewer and fewer puffins were coming to an island off the coast of Maine that had once been a nesting place for great numbers of them. The people concluded that if something weren’t done about it, soon there would be none left.
Since puffins are social birds and only nest where there are others of their kind, the people decided to set out decoys to attract the puffins. They arranged for a number of imitation wooden puffins (decoys), skillfully painted to look like live ones, to be set in several places on the island.
It wasn’t long before several pairs of puffins spotted the decoys from the air and landed near a group of them. They must have been puzzled when the decoys didn’t respond to their cooing, but they didn’t leave. Soon others also flew in, and before long many were making nests. And so their numbers grew.
The decoys were kept in place for several years, resulting in increasing numbers making this island their home, to the satisfaction of those who worked so hard to make it possible. Now more than one hundred pairs of puffins return to the island every year, and the decoys have been moved to other areas.
This experience was so successful that before long a similar program was used to bring lovely terns and other birds to suitable spots. It was also a good way to get newcomers into areas where they had never been before. The decoy idea has also been used successfully along California shores to attract the lovely little birds called the “least tern.”
However, as we think of the happy results of the decoy system, we are reminded that there are other “decoys” that are not good ones. Satan is the one who uses these. He tries to lure us into places or tempt us to do things that we should stay away from. So the Bible faithfully warns us: “Neither give place [an opportunity] to the devil” (Ephesians 4:2727Neither give place to the devil. (Ephesians 4:27)), and to “trust in the Lord with all thine heart. . . . In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:56).
If we follow the guidance the Lord Jesus gives us in the Bible and ask Him to help us, this is the way to a happy life.
ML-04/30/2006