Over the Christmas holiday, my family decided to do a staycation at a local hotel resort. It was fun family time with a lot of events to enjoy. But one of the most interesting things that caught my eye was a bird in the atrium.
The atrium was filled with plants and landscaping that represented different topography of Texas, which was fun to explore. One morning I was sitting on our balcony over looking this atrium, when I heard a tapping noise. As I looked out, I saw a bird desperately trying to escape through the upper windows.
I started to wonder, how long it took for the bird to realize he wasn’t outside?
The atrium was beautiful. There were plenty of real trees, water features, and based on a couple of mosquito bites my kids got, bugs too. So, by all appearances it was no different than the outside world. But this bird knew he was trapped, that everything within the atrium wasn’t truly real, and wanted out.
As I sat on the balcony eating my breakfast, my sentiment became “I know how you feel”.
2020 did a bang-up job reminding me that this Earth is not my home. And having to quarantine over Easter, because of close contact with a positive case, was another reminder and flash back to last year.
This world is not how God had intended it. It is imperfect. By all appearances it has everything we appear to need, just like the atrium for the bird. But it is not how we were created to live. We were created for freedom and for a deep abiding relationship with God.
God uses the things he’s created to draw us to the realization that we belong with him. He is constantly seeking you out. He desires to have a relationship with you and give you the freedom, peace, and security only he can provide.
While he is patient in his coming because he doesn’t wish any to perish, (2 Peter 3:9) he desires greatly to welcome you into his presence. For you to realize this place is not the home he wants for you.
But unlike the bird in the atrium, God doesn’t want us to be beating our heads on the windows trying to get out. He desires us to influence and be a force of change within the environment he has placed us. He wants us to look around us and see his beauty. To see the needs and inadequacies in this temporal world and use the gifts he’s given us to point others to God in our own atrium.
How are you pointing others to God in your areas of influence?