“What is he up to?” I asked myself, heading down the hallway one morning. The tapping and scraping sounds grew louder the further I went down the hall. Daniel was the only one down there. I opened his bedroom door to find him lounging on his bed, reading a book and listening to his IPod.
“What are you doing in here?” I asked as he removed his earbuds.
“Just reading and listening to music,” he replied, puzzled.
I started to ask him about the tapping and scraping noise when I heard it again coming from the next room. The hair on my neck stood up. We were the only ones home!
I went into the next room, my heart pounding out of my chest. I didn’t know what I would find, but I certainly didn’t expect what I saw when I heard the tapping again. An Oriole was pecking at the window, his wings flapping frantically. He would land, exhausted, on the window sill, and soon attack the glass again. Over and over, the bird came crashing into the window. I scared him off and within minutes he had returned, his attack continuing on the glass, his reflection an imaginary threat to his nest in a nearby tree.
I checked on the oriole when I got home from running errands. He was nowhere to be seen, the sun then on the front of the house, the shade covering the back of the house and eliminating the threatening image in the back window. The next morning, however, he had resumed his assault on the window. What he failed to notice in his attack on his non-existent threat was a real threat watching from under the nearest tree. The neighbor’s cat was peering at him through the ivy, his ears back and tail flicking as he stalked the oriole. I had to chase the cat away to save the bird, still oblivious to his real threat.
People are a lot like that bird. We spend our time focusing on the imaginary threats affecting us while we ignore the real hazards stalking our lives. Though finances, health, family concerns etc are all valid concerns and not to be neglected, our spiritual health and relationship with our Lord are all too often completely ignored. Ephesians 6:12 & 13a says “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God…” We get so focused on the worldly, physical needs that we forget the spiritual battle. The only way to fight the spiritual battle, is to put on the armor God through relationship with Christ Jesus.
Like the oriole losing focus of the real threat, we need to learn to redirect our focus to the big picture. By keeping our eyes on the Lord and fighting the spiritual attacks on our lives, the physical needs and concerns will become less and less threatening. Like the oriole when the afternoon shade covered the window, Jesus Christ will cover the situations in your life and make them easier to handle.
