The Bird and Hitchcock Revisited

I once had this great idea.  I wanted my kids to experience a different kind of pet and while I am fiercely afraid of birds, I thought a small bird would be “manageable”. Right. 

I bought a parakeet.  It was pretty and yellow and seemed harmless enough.  The kids were old enough to care of it, so I gave them instructions how to “care for the parakeet”. 

Ya.  I really am that naïve. 

I would ask, who fed the bird?  Did you feed the bird? Did you? Whose day is it to feed the bird? 

I did a schedule.  

Are you following the schedule?  Have you fed the bird?  If you fed the bird, why didn’t you check it off on the list?

Did you REALLY feed the bird, or did you just SAY you fed the bird so you could go outside and play?

“Yeah, Mom”.  

Yeah what?

And then they were gone.  

One day I went to the birdcage to feed the bird while the kids were in school.  I opened the door, just barely, and the bird flew out.  I don’t know how it got out, but it did.  At first I freaked out because flying birds freak me out.  They remind me of the old Hitchcock movie by the same name.  I saw about 10 minutes of the movie when I was little and ever since that day I’ve been freaked out by birds.  

The problem was, I needed to get the bird back in the cage before it made a mess around the house.  About that time I was thinking, “Why do I always come up with these great ideas?”

I never did get the bird back in the cage.  I tried for about two hours and as soon as my daughter came home from school it took her about 2 seconds to get the bird calmed down enough to get it back in the cage.  

Turns out the bird was freaked out because I was freaked out.  Go figure.

I never did figure out why I get these great ideas, or why I follow through with them.  What I did figure out is that even when I do this stuff God works things out anyway.  It doesn’t matter if I make really silly decisions, God always seems to find a way to help me. 

God is good like that to “cover my back”.  It doesn’t mean that I can make bad decisions on purpose, just to test Him, but it does mean that God loves me anyway…great ideas and all!