The Man and the Birds

December 19, 2010 The Man and the Birds Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Luke 2:6-7 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Hebrews 1:1-2 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. . . John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. . .John 1:14 - The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Galatians 4 God sent his Son . . . to redeem us Several years ago, the now deceased Paul Harvey made popular a story entitled “The Man and the Birds”. There once was a farmer who was kind and generous to his family and upright in his dealings with others. But he did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God who came to our world as a man to save sinners. So Christmas was a hard time for him. One year he told his wife he wasn’t going to church with her for the annual Christmas Eve service. As his family drove away down the lane, the snowfall began to get very heavy. Several minutes later he was startled by a sound: thud, thud. He traced the sound to the front of the house and there outside the picture window of his house he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow and cold. They had been caught in the winter storm and in a desperate search for shelter were trying to get into the house through the front window, but kept hitting the glass. He couldn’t let the poor creatures keep flying into the glass or they would die; they needed to get inside to warm their dazed, injured bodies. He dressed in his coat and boots and went to his barn. There he opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds would not come in. But they kept flying into the glass of the window, becoming weaker and weaker. He tried to entice them with food, sprinkling bread crumbs on the ground in the doorway of the barn, but he couldn’t coax them. They were now flopping around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them, but only scared them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms, but they only scattered, and would not go into the warmly lit barn. He realized they were afraid of him now. To them he was not trying to help them, but was only a strange, large, terrifying creature. If only I could think of a way to let them know that they can trust me, that I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? They can’t understand me for their fear of me. If I could only become a bird . . . I could tell them not to be afraid . . . I could show them the way to safety . . . I could prove I didn’t want to hurt them, but to save them. At that moment the church bells began to ring. Just above the noise of the wind he heard them, and he stood there listening. Soon he fell to his knees in the snow. He realized that was just how God felt. God was trying to save him, and to do so, He had to become a man. And now it all made sense: Jesus was born into my world to save me. God sent his Son to redeem us.     [ Back to Top]