The Random Thoughts of Henry Holloway
This might be called ‘The Tale of Two Pigeons’. One of them we had here not long ago. It was young and it couldn’t fly. The knowledgeable ones in our family said that one wing was shorter than the other and it was off balance. Anyway, a friend of ours took it away and looked after it for a while and brought it back able to fly a little. I took it out to the backyard and threw it in the air and away it flew. The other pigeon we found, seemed to have fallen from its nest. It was just one more example, perhaps, of parental neglect. It was not fully feathered and it certainly couldn’t fly. We gave it a nice bed in an outhouse where it was safe and warm at night. It was fed on bird seed and anything else it would eat. It took its daily exercise strutting about the yard. Once or twice it made its way into the house and seemed to be quite at home. Just a little too much at home, maybe!
Several times I watched the pigeon walking about the yard. Every now and again it stretched its neck to the sky as if to say: ‘I was never meant for a back yard. I was made for the wide open spaces of the earth and sky. God gave me wings. I was meant to use them to soar with. This is not my home. My home is in the heavens.’
I pitied the pigeon in the back yard. He had wings, if only he could learn to use them. And one day he would and he too would fly away. Alas! it was not to be. An open door, a stray cat, and the bird that was made for the heavens finished on the dust heap.
When Jesus came into this world He did something for men that we have not all fully appreciated. He taught men that they were children of God: that they were capable of great things if they committed their lives to God. Many of the people He met lost their heart and hope because life had lost its meaning for them. In the presence of Christ they came to see that they did matter to somebody and that life could be happy and worthwhile.
A young fellow called in to see a friend of his before he left on holiday. As he was leaving his friend said, ‘Be good. Have a good time.” Don’t be silly,’ said he, ‘How can I be good and have a good time?’. Well, believe it or not, you can. You can’t persuade me that the young people of today who are enjoying their stolen moments of delight are really happy. Underneath the gay laughter and the gaudy tinsel there is a longing for something better than they have ever known. They have wings. They were never meant to be at home in the back yards of life.
One pigeon soared into the heavens to find its true life. The other saw the sky and the far horizons but finished on the dust heap. And it is like that sometimes in life. A man like Zacchaeus had good in him. It just needed somebody to bring it out. One day he met Jesus and his whole life was changed.
Then there was Judas. He, too, must have had some good in him. He was amongst the twelve disciples. He must have seen the far horizons. But he went out into the pitch darkness of night.
It was St. Augustine who summed up the whole truth in one sentence: ‘Thou hast made us for Thyself, 0 God, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.’
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