Metaphorically Speaking....

While sitting on a park bench on my lunch break today I saw something that put the adoption into perspective for me. I saw a homeless person pick up a pigeon that obviously had a broken wing. This person went to great efforts to chase the pigeon down, and at times it looked like he would give up his venture and move along. But he was persistent and finally he carefully picked up the injured bird. Admittedly I was a little worried as to what I would see next. Would this person do something to further harm the bird? I was really hoping that wasn’t the case because I am a sucker for animals (except snakes). Fortunately for the bird (and selfishly for me) this man’s motives were all good.

I was touched by what I saw as the man gently stroked the bird and seemed to look around to try to find somewhere safe to put the bird. Perhaps he was hoping a veterinarian would magically walk by and fix his little injured friend. I started to think metaphorically about our adoption. Michelle and I are the people trying to pick up the injured little bird. Our “bird” is a scared, possibly sick little guy/girl(s) who doesn’t know that we are coming to help him. He doesn’t know that our paths will soon cross and that we will pick him up and gently stroke him and try to make him all better. Just like the pigeon in the park, our little bird will be scared and unsure of us even though we are there to help.

As Michelle knows, I often need to think/speak metaphorically to get my point across, even to myself. Today I couldn’t help but think of this man’s adventure to pick up the sick bird and then the gentle touch he offered the bird as equivalent to the adventures we are having with the adoption. Right now we are the ones chasing the bird. Soon we will pick up the little bird and nurse him to health. It’s funny how God puts things right in front of us sometimes to make us think about what is actually going on in our lives.