{Revelation 16:15}
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Here is a present-day contemporary parable to read, to think about and to apply to our lives..
The king of the birds was looking in the mirror, one day, at himself and was disappointed and dissatisfied to see that his feathers were not as bright and pretty as they once were . "I am getting old," he said, "I think it will soon be time to choose a new king". He decided to make known that on a certain day. When that day comes all the birds will gather and present themselves before him so that he would be able select from among them the most beautiful and charming of them all to be the next king. The crow heard about the king's plans and his approach to pick a new king. The old crow began to worry and become upset. The old crow said: "There are so many beautiful birds in the kingdom and I am only a colorless, dull looking crow. I don't have a chance at becoming king." All of a sudden, he had a great idea. He began to hunt through the woods and fields for colorful feathers fallen from the wings of his companions, and jammed and wedged them in with his own. When the prearranged day, to pick the new king, finally came all the birds had assembled before the king. The crow also made his appearance arriving in his array of fine feathers that he found in the woods and field. When the old king took notice and saw the crow and all the good looks of his plumage, he without more ado chose the crow to be king. As the conceited and self-righteous crow pranced down the aisle with arrogance and conceit to accept his crown, the other birds began angrily plucking out their feathers from between his, leaving the conceited crow nothing but an old black crow. Too often, we try to "improve our worth" by adorning ourselves in " beautiful " possessions. Fine clothes, cosmetics, jewelry, friends, money, power, fame among all the others, tops the list. I was just like that old crow because I guess you could say in my life time I have did all these things. I had money {and wanted more}, nice things, everybody knew me as a town councilman, police chief, business man, owning many houses, etc. All these things, how good they may be and look, has really done nothing for me because I'm still who I am. What is true worth? There is really only one way to improve our appearance and how we are. We must put our faith in the Lord and walking unconditionally and with all our heart with Him. No matter what the world around us thinks, only He can improve our fallen condition and our search for happiness. Those feathers we find in our life and use aren't going to fool anyone, especially our King [Jesus}. Let's come to God as we are today and ask Him to adorn us with the feathers (riches) He desires. They are peace, patience, love, joy and all the fruits of the Spirit. Please do not get me wrong! There is nothing wrong with having nice things or being well known. It is when we use these things to impress people that we go astray. We are who we are and only a relationship with the master will ever change us!
I really started to see the light on this subject when I had a heart attack, business was really bad, {not as bad as it is now}, my wife, at the time, left me for a younger man, I hardly had any money and I was just like that old crow my pretty feathers were coming out. I went to work in a nursing home for only a small amount of money that I was making before. I felt just like that old crow. I was just hurt over all this, but my hurt started to turn to joy. As I worked there I noticed the old people there was so glad to see me every day {for who I really was} and for the very small things that I did for them, like reading a passage from the Bible for them, talking to them about the Lord, filling a bird feeder outside of their window for them. Just going into their room and saying a word to them, giving them a smile was so important to them. As time went by there I noticed that I was the same person but I looked and acted different. I was beginning to get new feathers, my own, because that was and is who I really am. Keep your true garment on and be clothed in what God would have you to be clothed in.
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