Yesterday a pigeon committed suicide. I was in the kitchen downstairs when I heard a loud thump. Afraid that Terry had fallen off his chair in his study, I raced upstairs, only to meet him coming down. “Did you hear that bang?” He asked in a state of shock. His desk faces the window overlooking the garden, and he described how a pigeon had come hurtling towards the window and smashed into the glass. “It dropped like a stone!” He said.
This is not an unknown occurrence. Our garden has many trees and they are reflected in our windows sometimes causing hapless birds to think they are flying into the leaves only to give themselves a nasty shock and doubtless a headache. Usually they fly off, rather dizzily. But this one plummeted to Earth never to rise again. We went out and gazed at its still form. Its feathers looked very smooth and glossy, but no breath stirred its plump chest. I felt sad. Terry dug a hole and laid the bird in it. One minute it had been flying carefree, and the next, death had come unexpectedly. It had thought it was flying into safety, into green foliage, but it had been an illusion. End of pigeon.
Later in the day, I was engaging in a different sort of death, a hopeful death, anticipating life. Instead of laying a dead bird into the ground I was pushing seeds into soil, expectant to see green shoots of lettuce, cress and spring onions beginning to germinate in a few days. Jesus said that seeds must fall into the ground and die before they can bring forth fruit. (John 12). Then in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul reflects that a change occurs when a body is sown into the ground: it rises into a different sort of life.
At the present time in this nation, (and in others across the world) we are going down into a sort of death. Everything is coming to a standstill and life as we know it has come to an abrupt end. Is this a crashing disaster? Or will a new and different sort of life emerge? Already stories are coming out about how this virus and the measures taken to deal with it have changed hearts and attitudes for the good. No doubt there will be very sad and negative stories too. But I for one would be glad to see the death of some things, such as the casual attitude to abortion, the preoccupation with gender issues and obsession with political correctness, to mention a few. At least Brexit has retreated into the shadows as a major topic of wrangling! There will be sadness as the death of what we have come to regard as normality takes hold. There will be grieving and hardship. But dare we hope that new life will spring forth?
Christians can be sowing seeds now in prayer for revival to break out; for a preoccupation with the kingdom of God to arise , and instead of the arrogance of a society that has turned its back on God that there may be a new humility as people recognise anew their need of Him, and find New Life in the One who is the way the truth and the Life.
The Wendy House 