"Downtown" was losing out to the new shopping malls. Store after store was moving out and there were no new tenants moving into the big old buildings. One building had stood empty and abandoned for a long time. Dust settled softly, plaster crumbled and fell, and the only footprints on the dusty floors were the tracks of busy rats and mice.
One day there was something new. A flutter of wings caught the eyes of a passing social worker named Marilyn, and she saw a beautiful pigeon flying against the plate glass windows in the old storefront, trying desperately to escape.
Marilyn was a bird lover, and her heart went out to the little pigeon. First she tried to find where the pigeon had gotten in. Failing in that, she found a little crack in one of the big doors and slipped in some crackers and bits of apple from her lunch.
The pigeon ate greedily but, no nearer to getting out than before, soon returned to slamming itself against the glass.
Then Marilyn tried to get help. She stopped a policeman who said, "If it flew in, it could just fly out!"
She called the Humane Society. They only suggested she call someone else.
For five days she stuffed food through the crack and kept trying to find someone who would be willing to rescue one trapped little bird.
At last, success! The owner of the building was found and came with the key to open the door. The pigeon was free!
Doesn't it remind us of the parable of the Good Samaritan? The priest and the Levite "passed by on the other side." They had no comfort to offer the wounded man.
The law could not help, just as "keeping the ten commandments" (if anyone could!) cannot save us now.
The Humane Society did not help, nor will any amount of good works or humanitarian deeds save us.
But One, the Lord Jesus, came "where we were." He had the key and the door stands wide open. We have only to walk through into liberty, the "glorious liberty of the children of God."
Wouldn't it have been a foolish pigeon if, after looking out the door into liberty, it had deliberately turned back into the dusty old building? Be wise. Accept the Lord Jesus Christ today.