During some recent time off I remembered a lesson God had shown me when I was new into ministry. I was working nights at the mentally ill care home and had lots of free time in the day. In the day I hung out and learned from a certain Calvary pastor from Florida. We had a noon bible study in a park across from the court house in downtown Ottawa. On this particular week our pastor was going away and had asked me to lead the bible study. I arrived early and was waiting for people to show up. I had a lot on my mind. The weekend prior a friend of mine had tried to commit suicide and had been calling me numerous times. Friends were fighting over a girl and were both asking for my advice and God had put in my path a young man to mentor. This man was a challenge. He was a compulsive liar and made my life very chaotic at times. All this being said I had a full plate of people to help.
As I waited, I noticed two kids in the brush next to my bench. They were standing over a dead black bird poking it with a stick. I quickly asked them to put down the stick and go find their parents. As they left a thought came to my head and said ‘heal the bird.’ I was taken back, I looked over both shoulders to make sure no one was around to hear me and spoke the words ‘Jesus heal this bird.’ I watched. Nothing. Oh well I thought, looked up and my chaotic mentee was coming toward me. He sat down. I looked back at the black bird and to my surprise it was twitching on its back, badly mangled. I informed the compulsive liar what had taken place earlier. What happened next even he couldn’t make up.
Before our very eyes the bird flipped onto its belly, wings spread on the ground and feathers all roughed up. Its eyes were puffy and white. Within 10 minutes we watched the bird reconstruct itself. I remember the last thing I saw as it walked away was its eyes. The white puss filled eyes closed then opened yellow with a black strip down the middle of them. He closed and opened his eyes and they were normal!!
A thought entered my mind, what I know now as the voice of God, “you can’t heal a bird can you? You can’t stop someone from killing themselves can you? You can’t fix people can you? If you want to see some cool stuff, then come for the ride. But it has nothing to do with what you think you can do.”
Let God be God. It’s not about doing for God; it’s about being with God.
