One fall morning the family was getting ready to leave in the van to take me to work and then drop Erin off at school. I was the first one out of the house and heard a bird’s frantic chirping. It sounded as if it were in great distress. Following the sound behind some bushes, I found our cat Jingles with a cardinal he had caught. I gave Jingles a swat that so surprised him that he dropped the bird and ran away. The beautiful red bird was lying on the ground, its poor little body heaving after its desperate struggle with the cat.
The children came to see the poor little victim. We decided to lay the bird in a box with a lid since we had to leave. Anne, my wife, would see what she could do for the bird when she came back home.
Home again, Anne borrowed a bird cage from a neighbor and gently placed the cardinal in it. The cardinal began to perk up and soon was acting perfectly normal, hopping about in the cage. Anne and the boys, Jimmy and Andy, decided to take it to a nearby wildlife center to let them care for it and release it back into the wild.
When the lady at the wildlife center saw our beautiful red cardinal, do you know what her first question was? “Did your cat bite this bird?”
“Well, probably, but why does that matter? It seems to be recovering,” Anne explained.
“If the cat bit this bird, it will die within two days,” the lady told them.
Anne and the boys were surprised and so sad to hear this. “But why? How can that be?”
The lady explained that cat saliva contains something that is very toxic to birds and causes death. She said she would send us a postcard if the bird died.
As the family talked about it at dinner that night, we all thought our beautiful cardinal would surely be alright. But we watched for the postman each day.
One day went by; no postcard came. Two days, and no postcard. Three days, and still no postcard. Maybe our cardinal is going to make it, we all thought.
We went out of town for the weekend and forgot all about the bird. But Monday afternoon there was the dreaded postcard in our mailbox, informing us that, yes, our poor cardinal had died. How sad we were to hear this, and how sad we were that our cat had caused the death of this beautiful bird.
You and I have been bitten just like that cardinal, and even though it was so beautiful and seemed healthy, it was dying! You and I have been bitten by sin, and no matter who we are or how we feel about it, we will one day die. The Bible says, “By one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)). The Bible also tells us that after death we face punishment for our sins. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). No excuses will do for our naughty sins; only one thing will remove them from God’s sight. What is that? “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). Have you told Jesus that you know you are a sinner? Have you let Him wash away your sins? Why not do it today!
ML-04/25/1999