I want to tell you a story of two birds, one cage, and the power of the Gospel.
It begins with the two birds in the cage. Daily they flew around the coop, ate the birdseed they were given, and looked outside. Their life wasn’t bad, but there was nothing to compare it to. Life for them had always looked like this: wake up, fly around the cage, and eat the birdseed.
There were slight hints and signs that something was wrong in the cage. Nothing was able to grow in the cage; it was merely a pile of dry hay and birdseed scattered throughout. The birds recognized the life outside of the arid pile of death they inhabited. Flowers bloomed and fruits blossomed outside of the cage, changes of miraculous measure bore no comparison to the constant humdrum of life in where they lived.
One day, a man came by and opened the cage door for them, allowing them the opportunity to be free. There was now a choice: they could fly out of the cage and live uninhibited by the past of their cage or they could continue the drudgery of the present. The world outside of the cage was new and promising and, without a second chance, the birds flew out of the macabre cage.
Life outside of the cage was indescribably unfettered by the routine of the past. The birds were able to experience the scent of a blooming flower, the rustling of their feathers in the midst of a storm, and the bursting flavor of natural food. Everything was fresh and ready to be explored. There were no obstructions in the way of them embracing the entirety of the world surrounding them.
After a scant amount of time in the freedom of the world, one of the birds started to look at the cage and was reminded of all the memories it had there. None were extremely happy or exciting, but it was something comfortable. The memories were recognizable, unlike this world in which they were recently released. It began to contemplate returning to the normalcy of the cage, the standardization of schedules and the man who regularly came by to feed them. It began to look extremely tempting.
But then the bird began to realize that all promises of a brighter future and present joy remained outside of the cage, in the immeasurable vastness of the world. But it didn’t want to forget where it came from, for the sake of never repeating the past. Something had to be done in order to make sure that no bird ever returned to the captive nature of the cage. And, at that moment, the man came by and placed a candle in the middle of the birdcage and lit the votive. This was perfect.
The candle turned the once dark cage into a light to illuminate a path for other birds to find freedom. The memories of the cage were not forgotten, but transformed into a testimony projected to reveal the healing powers of the Gospel.
We are currently working with an organization named “Mission Possible” that creates a women’s magazine, provides necessities to Roma villages, and supports the local churches of Bulgaria to bring the name of Jesus Christ to the nation. This story was told to the team I am with this month by our contacts, who have an immensely colossal heart for the women in this country, and desire to see the women of this nation find and experience the freedom of the Gospel that Jesus freely gives to us.
*the story is paraphrased, but the main ideas are still translated in the midst of my English!
