Triple C News - August 19
Hey, everyone!
Wow! What a game last night! When you’ve got a 21 year old who can score from first on a single hit 30 feet past second base, the future looks bright for the Braves!
Oh, I forgot.
You might have been streaming something else. I saw a thing in the news that said for the first time in ever, more people were streaming stuff than just “watching TV” (as we used to call it).
When I was a kid, you just had three channels and you watched what they put on. And if it was on ABC, we sometimes had to take turns grabbing on to one of the two “rabbit ears” of the antennae and holding the other arm in the air to see it!
In the summertime, after they had shown all the episodes of Bonanza or whatever, they’d show them again. We called them the “summer reruns”.
Which I thought of this morning when I read a verse in Matthew 6 that reminded me of one of these CCC emails I wrote one Friday years ago. Since it’s summer, I looked for it and decided to repeat it in honor of the old-school summer rerun! Here it is!
“Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day!
Well, I do know of one person who is having a day that must be less awesome than it could’ve been.
I don’t actually KNOW this person. But I know something about this person, I think.
Y’see, I was walking into Panera and I saw this photocopied sign (in color!) tacked up on the bulletin board. There was a picture of a parakeet.
The sign said that this bird was lost in the Woodland area. Its name is “Axel”. It’s mostly gray with a yellow crest.
“It answers to ‘Axel’ “
(Really?! It does??)
Then there was a number to call, written out about thirty times on the little tabs the person had cut at the bottom of the page, so you could just tear the tab off, slip it in your pocket, and call the minute you see a bird that has a yellow head and apparently answers to “Axel”.
The sign had been up there a while ‘cause I had glanced at it a few days before. I noticed that no one had ripped a tab off.
Several thoughts ran through my thinking…
No tabs gone…hmmm…
…Maybe not that many people care about birds the way this person does. Maybe it’s a child’s bird and a parent is trying to tell this little heart, “See,Chip? I’m doing all I can to find Axel! He’s on the Panera board! If it doesn’t work, we’ll look into renting one of the big digital billboards along Solway!”
Or maybe no one had taken a tab because not that many people really have much hope that this person and this bird will ever renew their relationship.
A parakeet that flew away. What really are the chances that you’d ever see it again?
Best case scenario…it’s gone home to Argentina. Worst case…it was lunch time for kitty. As tough as it is to accept, it’s the ol’ “Circle of Life”. And cats have to eat. Cats are people, too.
As I looked at the sign and meditated on it…there in front of the bathroom door…I thought about this broken-hearted one.
I know some might wonder how a person could care about a little bird so much. Some might think parakeets are small, useless, and at times, annoying.
On the other hand, I’ve often wondered why God would care for me so much. In His universe, I’m so small and often annoying.
But He DOES care for me!
In fact, He even cares for Axel!
At least, Jesus said He cares for all sparrows. There are 7000 varieties of sparrows in the world. He knows and cares for each one!
Matthew 10 says that they’re so common, you could get two for a penny! Luke 12 says you could get five for two pennies!
“Buy four and we’ll throw one in for free!”
But…amazingly…not one falls to the earth without the Father knowing and caring for it!
I remember once walking just past Razzleberry’s at Jackson Square.
There on the sidewalk was a sparrow. It was dead.
“The Father knows,” I thought.
And He knows, loves, and cares for you!
‘Cause you’re worth tons more than a bird to Him! You’re His precious child! (Luke 12.7)
Now the…
Oh. By the way…if you DO see a gray parakeet with a yellow head that answers to “Axel”, call 235-3754.
Now the news…