The picture of the storks calls to mind a story which you may like.
In a village in far off Norway there once lived a little boy named Conrad and his widowed mother. They were very kind to a stork which built its nest near their home every summer for many years. They fed it and petted it, so that it got to know them, and when Conrad whistled for it, it would come to eat from his hand. Each spring they watched for it eagerly, and it seemed equally glad to see them.
When Conrad grew up he went to sea, hoping to earn money enough to be able to keep his mother in her old age. Near the coast of Africa the ship he was on was attacked by pirates, and he and the other sailors were put in chains and afterward sold as slaves.
As the weeks went by and the poor widow did not hear from her son, she gave up all hope of seeing him again, and mourned for him as drowned. Things around her held little interest for the poor lonely woman, but for Conrad’s sake she welcomed the stork and fed it till it flew away into the sunny south.
One day as poor Conrad toiled away at his dreary work in some lonely place, a stork came flying close to him, wheeling about him in great delight. Scarcely knowing what he did, when the memory of his home, his mother and their yearly visitor came before him, he whistled as he used to do to call the stork.
To his great joy the stork came at once to him as if to be fed. He lifted up his heart to God, and with tears gave thanks for the coming of his pet. Day after day he fed the bird all he could spare from his wretched meal.
When it came time for the stork to go north again, Conrad was sad. Was it going to his mother’s cottage? Was the nest still there, and was his mother there to welcome and feed the bird? Then it occurred to him that the stork might help him to gain his freedom. He managed to write a brief message on a scrap of paper, telling where he was and that he was held as a slave, and tied the paper firmly around the bird’s leg.
Spring came again to Norway, and with it the stork. The widow’s eye lit up when she saw the stork, and more tenderly than ever she welcomed it. While feeding it, she noticed the strange letter tied to its leg. Think of her joy when she found that it was from her son.
The tidings quickly spread that Conrad was alive, and the king sent a ship which the pirates would not dare to touch, to recover Conrad from his slavery. Ships traveled slowly in those days, but in due time Conrad was redeemed from his slavery, and was safely at home in his mother’s cottage.
We can pray to the Lord for His help to free us from the bondage of sin and the evil of our hearts. Prayer is the white-winged bird that can bear our messager right up to the Father’s House. And the answer comes, God knew our need long, long ago; and the Lord Jesus, His Son, came down to redeem as by giving up His own life for all who desire to be freed at such cost.
ML 09/19/1943