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Writer's pictureCoco

Coco Calling No.150 - A Parrot’s Guide to Pentecost


I love my human owner and his family. Over the last 20 years, I’ve developed a very special relationship with them all. We share a mutual bond and trust, even though we don’t always understand each other. For example, I never quite get why they all have to change their plumage every day. And why they disappear off for long periods of time, except at weekends and Bank Holidays. And why does my owner need to appear outside my window with his noisy grass cutting machine when the grass hasn’t done anything wrong in the first place?




It must have been a bit like that when the original twelve disciples joined forces with Jesus. Clearly they all formed a powerful bond and stayed together with Jesus even when they hadn’t got a clue about what was going on!


Just imagine it. At the very beginning, you’re invited to join the “Apostle Club.” You give up everything you know to follow and obey Jesus. This same Jesus who appears to be all powerful and indestructible. The Jesus who can miraculously heal people with a single touch or bring the dead back to life. The same Jesus whose wisdom and self-control can outwit the Teachers of the Law, the Pharisees, the Roman occupiers and just about everybody else. And yet despite all this, the leader that you have dutifully followed inexplicably submits Himself to human torment, torture and ultimately death. You will have watched events unfold in horror, unable to comprehend what’s going on. You feel devastated, crushed, even betrayed until out of the blue, Jesus suddenly reappears in human form having risen from the dead! And it seems that no sooner does He reappear that He disappears all over again. You and the others are left scratching your heads and trying to make sense of the situation when all of a sudden, a freak wind blows in from nowhere, and tongues of fire come down from the Heavens and touch you! Pentecost!



And suddenly you find you are multilingual. You can go and preach the message of God to anyone, anywhere! Hallelujah! What’s next?


I reckon that we all need moments of Pentecost as we go through life. Times when we need to be touched by the Holy Spirit to receive guidance, wisdom and especially direction. Moments when we allow God’s spirit to wash through everything that we are and have previously been to revive, restore and empower us. After their Pentecost experience, the eleven remaining apostles went on to spread the Christian faith to such an extent that today some 2.5 billion people claim to be Christian. When God is in charge, anything is possible. I wonder how he can use all of us?


“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13).


My human owner’s at it again! We could be on the sofa watching TV together, but no, he’s now got the magic dust-sucking machine out. I’ll never understand him, but I’ll always love him…



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