The random thoughts of a Christian parrot
I don’t know how you find it, but for a parrot, Wintertime can be a bit of a struggle. Long cold nights. Short dark days. And on occasions, white stuff called snow which no one’s ever seen back in Senegal. So to help keep the Winter blues at bay, I’ve come up with A Parrot’s Guide To Surviving The Winter. Here it goes:
1. Make sure you fluff up on your perch to keep warm.
2. Stuff yourself in the Autumn to make sure you’ve got plenty of reserves for the Winter.
3. Eat loads of hot chillies, then blow out to warm up the room.
4. Be an extrovert when it’s horrible outside. (I like to loop-the-loop on my perch and wolf whistle to the entire neighbourhood.
5. Be grateful for what you have. I’m here in the warm. Outside the window, all of the garden birds are cold, wet and hungry.
6. Put yourself up a string of parrot fairy lights
7. Play your favourite songs. Mine happen to be Mendelssohn’s “Oh For The Wings Of A Parrot” and “The Birdie Song” by The Tweets (1981).
8. Apply positive thinking. In Shakespeare play “Richard III” (1594), a character called “Gloucester” is so inspired by King Richard, that he proclaims: “Now is the Winter of our discontent made glorious Summer by this son of York.”
Well of course, King Richard probably had a lot going for him, but for my positive thinking, I focus on Jesus. Because if anyone is capable of bringing Summer to us during Wintertime, it’s Jesus. However down or flat we may be feeling. And it’s not surprising that Heaven is sometimes likened to the Summer in the Bible. Take Luke 21:29-31 for example, when Jesus tells His followers:
“….Look at the fig tree and all of the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that Summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”
All we are asked to do is to have faith and trust in God and Jesus. Especially in our darkest hour. The Bible tells us this over and over again:
John 14: 1-3: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”
Psalm 56: 3-4: “When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.”
Mark 5: 36: Jesus tells a synagogue ruler: “………Don’t be afraid, just believe…..”
Jesus and God are the lights that continue to shine out even through the darkest and most depressing of our Winter days.
And all we need to do is to hold firm, trust and believe in what lies ahead. To see beyond the present. To continue to trust and believe, even when things become very difficult, until we eventually arrive at our glorious Summer! A Summer that is far more glorious than we can ever imagine.