There was that raven again, eating our kitten’s food! I looked at the big, black bird more closely. I saw that it had a little gold ring around one of its legs. That must be a tame bird, someone’s pet, I thought, but I sure wish its owner would keep it at home. Fuzz is going to starve at this rate.
Did you ever stop to think how many ravens are eating up your food? Jesus said, “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:32-3332Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. (John 6:32‑33)). How often do we let the “ravens” of laziness or perhaps busyness peck away until our day has gone by, and we haven’t eaten any of the bread of God - we have not read our Bibles. We’ll be just like Fuzz. He was so skinny there was hardly anything left of him but fur and bones.
That night at suppertime we talked over Fuzz’s problem, and it was decided that I should sit right beside Fuzz until he’d had time to eat all his food. The raven would not come close with me sitting there.
The next morning I sat on the back step guarding Fuzz’s dish. It wasn’t long until Mr. Raven arrived and perched on the ground a few yards away from us. Fuzz wasn’t eating very well with that big bird watching him so closely. When I petted and talked to him, he’d take a nibble or two in between nervous glances at that bird that was twice as big as he was. All the time Mr. Raven was cocking his head from side to side and hopping a little closer every minute. Suddenly he flapped his big wings and rushed in, and just as suddenly he took off again with the whole dish in his big beak, food and all, flying over the housetops.
Fuzz was scared and I was disgusted! Something had to be done! I began wandering around our small community searching for Mr. Raven. Pretty soon I found him, looking very much at home on the roof of a neat little house with a chain dangling from its chimney - probably Mr. Raven’s chain.
I knocked at the door and told the lady who answered about the trouble we were having with her bird eating all our kitten’s food. It was then arranged that Mr. Raven would be chained to the chimney between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning and between 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon so Fuzz could eat all of his food.
Soon Fuzz was a healthy, sleek cat. But he needed to have that time, completely free from the raven, to eat his food in peace. The Bible tells us that if we’ve found out how kind the Lord Jesus has been to save us from our sins, we should be as eager to feed on the Word of God as a newborn baby is to drink milk (1 Peter 2:2323Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (1 Peter 2:23)).
Let us be very careful not to let the “ravens” of this world rob us of the food we need to grow into healthy, strong Christians. The Lord Jesus tells us not to spend all our time working only for the meat that doesn’t last, “but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you” (John 6:2727Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (John 6:27)).
ML-01/25/2004