Birds and Windows

This morning I woke up to a bird flying continuously into my bedroom window. He would fly beak first and hit the window. He would then take another stab at it and do the same thing over and over again. This process kept going for an hour!

I remember the first time this happened. I thought the birds had gone mad. I was living on a hill in a wooded area, when I woke up to two or three birds flying directly into my window.

I did a little research, cause I thought this strange and sure enough, this happens each year around this time. The bird eats a particular nut that gets stuck in its beak and he has to break it out, so he flies into stuff.

I happened to live in a home with a huge window so over and over this silly bird would fly head first into the window. I thought for sure he was a goner, or high, or something.

Birds flying into windows almost always make me think of spiritual things. Okay, not really but this one did this morning. Most of the time, birds flying into windows simply makes me laugh or annoyed. This morning however, the bird flying head on into my bedroom window continuously for an hour and a half, starting at 6 a.m. didn't make me laugh, it made me annoyed and puzzled and then made me think of spiritual things.

In our lives as people who follow after the way of Jesus I am quite certain there are practices we have that make us look as crazy as the bird flying into my bedroom window. Things like, forgiveness, loving our enemies, praying, listening to God, reconciliation and many more can look just as a crazy to a watching world. But just like me with the bird, I realized that the bird was just being creative to get a job done that needed to be done.

(as i type, bird flies into my window again... oh it's now been about 15 times!)

So anyway...

As we follow Jesus sometimes we look as crazy as this bird does right now. But to us and to this bird, our crazy makes perfect sense and is actually good. Sometimes we have to do what looks crazy to follow well. Paul talks about foolishness and wisdom. He says the wisdom of man is foolishness to God. It is also said of the cross that even the cross is foolish to those who do not believe. I know that there are times where I've felt crazy for following after what I believed was the wisdom of Jesus.

[Now this is not to say that some birds flying into windows really are foolish and some people who say they follow Jesus really are fools. that is something to write for another time.]

But there are times where being foolish in the eyes of the world is just where we need to be.

What does it look like in your life to follow after Jesus even when it makes you look like a fool?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on wisdom and foolishness.