Of birds, wings and burdens…

There is a fable  about the way the birds got their wings.  God made wings and put them down before the wingless birds and said to them, ” Come, and take up these burdens and bear them”. The birds had lovely plumage and sweet voices.  They could sing and their feathers gleamed in the sunshine, but they could not soar in the sky.  They hesitated at first when bidden to take up their burdens that they lay at their feet, but soon they obeyed, and taking up their wings in their beaks, laid them on their shoulders to carry them.  For a little while the load seemed heavy, but presently, as they went on carrying them, the wings grew fast to their little bodies, and soon they discovered how to use them, and were lifted by them up into the air.

It is a parable.  We are the wingless birds, and our duties and tasks are the pinions that God has made to lift us up and carry us.  We look at our burdens and heavy loads, and shrink rom them, but as we lift them and bind about our hearts, they become wings, and on them we rise and soar upwards.  There is no burden which, if we lift it cheerfully, will not become a blessing to us.  To refuse to bend our shoulder to receive a load is to decline a new opportunity for inner growth.  God has placed us where we are for a definite purpose.  We do not have to give an interview and present our credentials.  He knows what we are capable of———-our strengths and weaknesses.  We must tap into our inner resources and work in all sincerity and to the best of our abilities.  Success should not make us proud nor should failure dampen our spirits.  God sees the efforts that we make.  He may try us for some time, but He will never try us beyond our strength.