Obedience
Illustration★★★★The “Fable of the Birds” is a story about Creation. All the newly-made animals were walking around discovering what it was like to be alive. All except the birds! They were doing nothing but complaining because God had given them a heavy burden that He’d given no other animal: those awkward ap- pendages on their shoulders.
God must be punishing them somehow. Why did they have to carry these things around, making it hard to walk? “Why?” they asked.
“Why us?” Finally, two or three of the more adventurous birds began to move their appendages.
They began to flutter them, and soon they discovered that the very thing they had regarded as a burden actually made it possible for them to fly. And no other animals could fly. The “heavy burden” turned out to be a beautiful gift. Many of us act like those silly birds.
We regard God’s call to obedience as an awkward appendage to our lives—weighing us down. Thou shalt not! Thou shalt! Heavy burden it is until we discover that God’s Law is really the wind of the Spirit, en- abling us to fly as no other creature can fly.
The point
In a creation fable, birds complain about their wings as burdensome until they discover flight; God's commands similarly appear as burdens until we experience their liberating gift.