Where we live there are many blackbirds with shiny feathers that look purple in the sunshine. They are called grackles. Noisy, bold, dirty and usually in large flocks, they’re not the nicest birds to have around ... but there is beauty in all of God’s creation. There is beauty even in a grackle.
A favorite nesting place for grackles in the summer is in an unused fireplace chimney. Our story begins with a baby grackle in a chimney near an old hospital.
One morning while the hospital’s caretaker, Tom, was eating breakfast in his cottage, he heard a flutter of wings by the fireplace. With a thump, a gawky little grackle landed in a heap in the ashes, terribly dirty, his eyes full of soot and ashes. Tom carefully picked up the dazed baby bird, cleaned off the soot and ashes and decided to keep the baby bird as a pet. He fed it each day with food from his own plate. After a while, the bird became tame and would fly around Tom while he worked outside. Tom fixed up a protected area in the toolshed where his pet grackle could sleep or come in out of the rain. But when he was hungry, he knew right where to go — to Tom’s cottage.
Tom taught the bird to repeat a couple of words. But the only word that anyone beside Tom could understand was “Jack, Jack.” So, the grackle’s name became Jack.
“Jack, Jack” greeted Tom each morning as he walked to the toolshed. Even Tom’s footsteps were soon recognized by Jack.
Jack was very obedient to his new owner. Tom decided that Jack must have learned a lesson from his fall down the chimney. Evidently in his hurry to get out of a crowded nest, Jack had stepped over the edge and had fallen down that long, dark chimney into the fireplace. If he had fallen down any other chimney, he probably would have died. It was a good thing Jack fell down the chimney of someone who loved birds.
One night there was a severe summer thunderstorm. Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, wind whipped the trees, and it rained hard. Tom did not worry about Jack because he was sure Jack was safe in the toolshed.
But the next morning as Tom walked to the toolshed, there was no “Jack, Jack” to greet him. Opening the door, he found that Jack was gone. He must have been so frightened that he flew out into the bad storm.
Tom kept looking for Jack and finally found him, but he looked almost dead. His feathers were wet and he was very cold. Once more, Jack probably would have died if Tom had not found him. This time Tom decided to keep his pet inside his cottage. He built Jack a big cage where he would be protected and safe.
Tom’s love for Jack reminds me of God’s love for us. The first people God ever made were Adam and Eve. They were in a beautiful garden called Eden where everything was just perfect. But they believed a lie from Satan and disobeyed God as a result. God knew what they had done, and He still loved them, but they were scared of Him and hid from Him. He called to them, “Where [are you]?” (Genesis 3:99And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9)). We are like that too. Like Adam and Eve, we are far from God because of our sins. Just as He did to them, God is calling to you, “Where are you?” He loves you and wants you to be His own child, even though you have sinned.
Even though God had to send Adam and Eve out of Eden, He never stopped loving the people He made. He loved us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to search for us and to save us, so that one day He could take us to an even better home than Eden where Adam and Eve were ... His very own house in heaven. Just like Tom loved Jack enough to make him a place in his own house where Jack could live, the Lord Jesus has prepared a place for those who love Him in God’s own house, heaven itself. That is the wonderful love of God! When man ruined what God had given to him, He just made a better place for man to be for all eternity, where sin can’t come to ruin things. Have you believed that wonderful love?
Messages of God’s Love 12/4/2022