The Royal Blue Bird

Here in Kansas City lately the high temperature has been about 2-3 and the low has been about -5 to -10. Let's just say it has been extremely cold. About three days ago I was outside getting the mail and stopped in amazement at some birds that were flying around one of our shrubs. They were beautiful. Gracefully flying around were four or five royal blue birds. The ease with which they flew was amazing. Their color was majestic. What a beautiful creation the bird is. But it was all that mixed together that created the beauty - the color, the ease of flight, the innocence of the birds.

Fast forward to this morning. Laying on the ground outside the back door was one of the royal blue birds. Motionless. I went and grabbed a shovel and put the bird in a bag, hoping against hope that it might warm up and somehow fly again. But that was not going to happen this day. From beauty and grace on Saturday, to death on Monday. Isn't life like that at times? Things are going good and then something happens that sets you back. A diagnosis. A demand for a divorce. The death of a spouse. Word that the company is going in a new direction. Maybe the events change you, but are not quite as dramatic. The loss of a long-time client. A friend who simply fades away. The job just gets tougher. The finances just don't stretch like they used to.

We all face tough times, hard times, uncertain times. We never know for sure what is around the corner in our life. In fact, maybe it is our life that passes. Not our spouse. Us. One day we are flying gracefully in the wind, the next we are no longer on this earth. It can be hard to process or think about, but we all must deal with our mortality. We don't want to leave the earth. We don't want to leave our kids, grandkids, our family. But we know that bad things happen to people. I believe we will all stand in judgment before God. How we live now, what we do with our life now determines the result of that judgment. So it would be worth your time to contemplate your life now and what it may look like after death. Because one day we could be flying gracefully high, and the next we're not, just like the royal blue bird in my yard.