The Freedom of Following God's Commands
When I was six years old, my older brothers Matt and Tim wanted a pet bird. They found an add on Kijiji in which a guy was selling some baby budgies, and so my dad took them to look at the birds (I tagged along). We brought home a little green and yellow Australian budgie in the cage we had recently acquired when we found it on someone's driveway left out for Winnipeg Free Day. We all liked the new budgie, and he was named Sunshine.
Fast forward about three years. For awhile there had been some discussion about getting a friend for little Sunshine. Eventually we decided to get another one, but this time we went to Petland (I'm not sure why). The budgies were more expensive there but my dad and brothers decided to buy one anyway. I went with my brothers to go see the collection of budgies they had. There were quite a few budgies, as I recall. But one of them seemed quieter than the rest. She was a beautiful white and blue budgie (my brothers had always wanted one that was white and blue, but when they bought Sunshine, that was not an option). She was decided upon. After the Petland staff had tried unsuccessfully to get us to buy more toys for our birds, made my dad buy a bag of seed (even though we had one at home already) and had my dad sign "adoption papers", we brought "Lily" home in a little box.
Unfortunately, Lily didn't turn out to be a budgie of good character. She knocked the grit (a substance which helps budgies digest their food) out of its container, ate bits of the newspaper that was at the bottom of the cage (and taught Sunshine to do that also), and sometimes when Sunshine was eating at the seed box she would come over, butt in, and eat the seed herself, and she wouldn't let Sunshine come near. Also, she was small, so for awhile she was actually able to squeeze out of the cage. At first, when she squeezed out of the cage, one of us would put her back in right away. But my dad suggested that perhaps if we made her stay outside the cage for awhile, she wouldn't want to come out anymore. When she squeezed out, she didn't try to fly all over the house; she simply perched herself on top of the cage and waited for us to put her back in. She was able to get out, but for some reason she couldn't get back in unless we put her back in. What a silly bird! I thought.
About a year passed by. Lily's behaviour got worse and worse. Then one day, Tim was cleaning the cage, and as usual, he began to relocate the birds before he cleaned it. He got Sunshine out no problem and put him in the box we used to keep the budgies in while the cage was being cleaned. But Lily put up a fight. She kept biting him. Finally he put on rubber gloves, but she bit through the gloves. Then she flew out and made a beeline for the single hole in our screen door and flew into the Great Outdoors. That was it.
(Please note: I am telling the story as it was related to me by my brother and mom who were in the kitchen at the time of the incident; I was in my room at the time.)
I've sometimes imagined how Lily must have had that escape planned all along. Perhaps it had been her dream for a long time to be "free." But was she really free? Free from the bars of her cage, yes. But house pet budgies like Lily are rather unprepared for outside life. Since they have lived inside for all their days, they don't know how to get food or keep away from other animals that might hurt/kill them. Since we live in the city where there are fewer animals and food is easier for an animal to get, perhaps Lily was able to stay alive for a time, but I doubt she lived for too long. So really, although she had more room to fly outside and could do pretty much what ever she wanted, Lily was not free to go eat from the seed box whenever she wanted and drink from the water container when she was thirsty, and she wasn't safe from other larger animals. Which do you think was better, and freer, for her?
Why do I say all this? Well, lately I have been thinking about God's commands. Quite a long list, isn't it? Sometimes it seems like God wants to bind us with His rules and keep us from the "real world." But for us, what is the "real world"? It is sin and evil and danger.
I used to feel that if I totally submitted to all of God's law, I wouldn't be "free" - "free" to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, "free" to think about whatever and whomever I wanted as much as I wanted, and "free" to say whatever I wanted. But as time went on, I realized that doing those things didn't give me freedom - they were enslaving me. I felt like I couldn't stop. Since I finally realized that true freedom is found in the righteousness God gives and in obeying all of His commands, I am seeing true freedom in my life, freedom from the bondage of sin. So instead of looking at God's commands as walls, they have become what opens the prison door. And of course sometimes I foolishly think I want back in the "real world" but I don't stay there for very long, because I see every time how binding it is. Not only does the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross make us free from eternal condemnation, but also God's commands free us from being enslaved to sin! Of course, once we are saved, we won't be fully enslaved to sin again (I understand there may be disagreements on that matter and I will refrain from elaborating) but we can become enslaved in part when we disobey God. But God always accepts us back into His freedom, gladness, and light. Isn't He faithful?
