A Bird’s-Eye View
By Brenda Graff
It is amazing how we can go
through life so busy that we lose sight of people, places, and things in our
environments. Our focus is merely on
reaching a point of destination within a certain time frame, speeding right
past the roses that we fail to stop and smell much less water, leaving only
shards of petals on wilting stems.
How
did we get so crazy busy? What are we
all rushing about for? I thought of this
one morning as I was rushing out my own door to head to work. I open my door to see our area had been hit
with heavy fog, and regretting that I had not gotten up earlier. As I drove down the road with daughter in
tow, I began to pray for our safety. You
couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of you. I was navigating with near zero visibility and
with other vehicles having no headlights on.
This made it especially worrisome travel. I must be at my job before the sun
rises. I was forced to slow down and
risk being late. I don’t do late. This caused me to be a little anxious racing
to get into a parking spot, to time clock, grabbing my gear, and heading to my
ride to hit the road again.
I am a
school bus driver. I must be on time to
gather the students to deliver to their schools on time. Everything hinges on my action or inaction
and safety skills in the morning, and afternoons. I felt my heart racing that morning,
exhausting myself nearly into panting as if I had just run a marathon, just to be
on time! I didn’t like that
feeling. Call me a type A personality or
predictable and boring if you must, but I like to be prepared for all
situations. I am just that girl. I enjoy knowing I have an organized plan for
my day, which by the way…. RARELY happens!
I’ve spent most of my life living in the unknown. Never knowing what to expect. However, there is always a plan B, C, D, E, F…
of scenarios prepared and stored in my brain always in case Plan A fails and so
forth. I’m sure a psychologist would
have fun breaking that one down. I know
that I live a flight or fight mode most of the time. I am having to learn to relax, be at ease,
not disease!
As I get older, am finding
that there are just some things not worth trying to conquer. I no longer am trying to change anyone but
MYSELF! Whew what a relief! I spent years exhaustively trying to conquer
that quest…fighting this cause and that cause, and suffering relationships… and
who was I trying to change you may ask? Anyone
and everyone who didn’t believe the way I believed. I finally realized that God
was doing perfectly good on His own with His creation, and didn’t need my
assistance. I realized that I am here as
a tool for Him but only to be used in His will not my opinion. If we
could all grab that concept we would get along so much better. I am finding that getting along is getting
much harder these days in our society.
There are a lot of angry folks functioning in this crazy race of life
rushing to work, soccer games, grocery stores, banks, doctor offices, etc.…I
see it every day from the bird's-eye view of my bus as I sit in heavy traffic on
the feeder roads of the freeway watching near death experiences from road-ragers,
tail-gating texters, and distracted drivers.
All the while I am wishing I have a bull horn to scream out, “SLOW DOWN”! I am stuck for many hours throughout my week
at traffic lights where I see quite a bit going on. I see the teen disagreeing with dad in a car,
the couple quarreling, the baby crying, the worker scarfing their lunch racing
through the stoplight, the coffee spiller, the face painter plowing through
caution lights while applying mascara.
However, I also get to perceive the sadness
in the eyes of a driver who is waiting on the light to turn green, or is
possibly waiting for the green light in life to live. I see the worn-down faces of the weary
waiting patiently to get home after what may have been an excruciating day for
them. Did they come from a funeral? Or perhaps caring for a long-term ill loved
one. Did they just lose their job? Have they pulled double-shift? Often,
I witness the distraught appearance of a driving damsel with children in tow probably
wondering how she’s going to make rent this month or feed her kids this
week. One day I got to see a homeless Veteran
with a shopping cart carrying all his belongings across the busy roadway nearly
missing a direct hit as he limped his way to a spot to rest.
My heart broke, as tears blurred my view just
enough for the light to turn so I could go, I became bitterly angry as I
thought how this man must have fought for our freedom at one time to end up
like this.
I drove past a few more on
street corners begging for their bread for the day possibly the posers that
never served in the military, or became mentally ill, or lost their homes due
to irrevocable circumstances and become disturbed. But who’s to say? It isn’t my judgement call. I just give as the Lord directs.
The bus I drive has no radio, or
A/C for that matter. The only sound I
hear is the roar of the century old engine, and the rattling of the doors
barely hanging on their hinges “clack…clack…clack” with each bump in the
road. I spend more than half my day on
the bus. This gives me plenty of one on
one time with God.
As I viewed these images
that broke my heart or cause me to feel the injustice of it all, I began to ask
God why He would allow me to feel this pain as if it were me personally. I genuinely hurt for that Vet, that driver I
see distraught, the impatient mother ranting at the child…. “Lord, I don’t want
to feel it” “Lord I don’t want to see it”, I pleaded. “Jesus, Do something”. I wanted to see something good, something I
could find beauty in. I know there is
pain in this world, it is shoved in our faces through social media, news, radio,
on the streets EVERY DAY! I don’t want
to focus on that. I’m worn out mentally
from all the negativity before noon of that day. As I approached my second shift run I prayed
asking for God to show me Him.
Once back
in traffic I experienced the same race-car drivers dangerously darting in front
of my bus with no signal. It was the same impatient ingrates, who apparently
don’t care to live or how someone dies…. cars honking at my long yellow
obstacle in the road because I can’t cross a medium with a semi running towards
me at warp speed with a load of students.
It’s enough to make you hang your keys up permanently, and commence to
walking everywhere, but then you would have to worry about being run over.
Anyhow, that evening as I was heading on last
route, I noticed up on a wire hundreds of birds gathered. A group would swoop to the ground and snatch
a worm, and fly back up, and then the next group would commence to follow, and
so forth. There was unique rhythm as
they would swoop with such grace and grandeur, it was a majestic mid-air dance to
watch. So much so, I suddenly felt the presence of God, it overwhelmed me as I
was reminded of this verse.
Matthew 6:25-26 The Message (MSG)
“If you decide for God, living a
life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table
at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far
more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer
appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and
unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.
And you count far more to him than birds.
These birds were not given a map
or a manual on how to gather their food to feast. They were not choreographed to fly musically
swaying together in a motion so majestically flawless, free, and unfettered.
They weren’t running into each
other hen pecking their way fighting to get the worm…and no one was flipping a bird for being cut-off in traffic.
Oh, no, instead they were created
to clearly see with a unique bird’s-eye view the hand that feeds them, the one
who created all living things including their meal moving about under the soil
in which we were created from. They
follow the rhythm of the heartbeat of their maker, our God. They swarm to safety in the shelter of His majestic
wings without a care, without a worry.
These
birds migrate together flocking and staging themselves high on a wire safe from
predators, close knit together to protect themselves as they prepare to eat,
travel, swoop, and swarm in a dance that only our Dear Heavenly Father could
have taught them.
Did I tell you? I saw
Him, I saw God…. I witnessed His beauty, His magnificence, His omnipotence,
through watching those birds in action, but mostly I witnessed and experienced
His LOVE as I realized how much He does love us…ALL His creation! He reminded me that despite what I may witness
in this world.
I must keep that bird’s-eye
view from the bus to keep His perspective on people, places, and ALL living
things. And the pain and injustice I
feel for these folks when I see it, is because it is what our Heavenly Father
feels, and has planted in me. To remove it would be to remove His heart, His
truth, and His love from my being. The
being created to comfort those who are in affliction, to bind up the
broken-hearted, tenderly whisper His love and display His desire for all
mankind, to reach out, touch, and bring glory to His kingdom.
To not see the pain would be
painfully unjust. We should hurt for our
fellow man or women, our children, our society.
If we who are created in Christ cannot, then we are nothing more than an
empty vessel wasting our days on this God given journey in life. We need a bird’s-eye view not only for the perspective
of pain but to pry open the purpose God has instilled in us, to see how His
heart beats for us and through us.
“The God who made the world and
everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made
by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he
himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24-25)
Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who
are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted
by God. (2 Cor 1:3-4)
Pain removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul. ~ C.S. Lewis
Watch this incredible starlings flying in rhythm! CLICK BELOW
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