Budgie Whisperer
Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Psalm 25:4 (NIV)
During my lifetime, I have had a few parakeets and found them to be lots of fun! They are quite interesting and very playful. They chitter and chatter throughout the day and mine would let me know if the TV or music was too loud. Instead of the little nighttime noises, they squawked. Tracy Crump (All God’s Creatures) shares a lesson she learned. Simple, sweet, and humble.
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My husband, Stan, and I paid our zoo entry fee and purchased the deluxe treat set—souvenir cups full of dry food, romaine lettuce and birdseed sticks. After feeding several farm animals, we headed to the budgie cage. A couple years earlier, my daughter-in-law and I had taken my young grandson to the same exhibit. The budgies, also known as parakeets, had flocked all around us landing on our sticks and greedily pecking at the seed.
I expected the same reception this time, but when I entered the crowded cage, the budgies kept their distance. They seemed disinterested in the food everyone had to offer—anyone, that is, except Stan. The little birds ignored the seed sticks he held out but landed all over him to make their way down to the cup of lettuce tucked under his arm. They took turns pecking the fresh leaves. At one point, I counted eleven parakeets of varying combinations of blue, white, black, yellow, and green attached to my husband.
I also noticed quite a few jealous looks directed Stan’s way. One mom walked by and nodded. “Uh-huh. A budgie whisperer.”
Oh, that I would draw close to God the way those budgies flocked to Stan. When I thought about it, the romaine lettuce was probably better for them than a constant diet of seed, even though they had to work harder for it. The little birds weren’t just going for what was good. They were going for what was better. And what could be better for me than to walk humbly with God and do what He requires.
I enjoyed the lesson from the budgies that day, but I do need to have a talk with the little beauty who was nibbling Stan’s neck.
Lord, draw me ever closer to You and show me the goodness You alone reserve for me. AMEN.