This morning I was doing inventory in the gift shop when I heard a noise.  I looked back through the back room to the enclosed porch and saw a small bird inside, beating it’s wings against the window trying to get out.

I went back there and got a stick and tried to either get the bird to sit on the end of it or move in front of it in the direction I wanted it to go.  No luck!  The bird flew under an old vending machine and then I thought I saw it fly out in the direction I wanted it to go.  I got it cornered in a narrow hallway and finally managed to get my hands carefully around it.  I took it outside and set it on the railing.  The door had been tied open and that was how the bird had gotten inside.

As I was walking the bird out, I saw another bird flapping against the window near the ice cream freezer.  I went back in and captured that bird and carefully carried it outside.  It immediately flew away.  I went back inside and shut the door.  I thought I was done.

As I was walking back to the back room, I realized that the bird that I had originally tried to help out was still there.  It had hidden under the old vending machine and was out again.  This time it flew toward the narrow hallway so that I was finally able to catch it.  By this time, some of it’s feathers were loose and it looked thoroughly exhausted.  I released it outside and went back to work.

It was hard not to be able to explain to these birds that I was trying to help.  I could feel their little hearts beating as I held them.  It seemed to me there must be some sort of symbolism, some message about our own condition in the hands of God.