A dry branch is a shelter!

Some birds use this dry branch as one of its flight stations almost every day!

This dry branch has no life of its own now. But it is still a shelter for some birds everyday. 

The older people in society have a similar feeling of being 'redundant'! It was a senior citizen who planned that he would distribute ten food packets each day. Seeing him do this, a group of younger people have organised themselves to run a kitchen where about one hundred people come to collect food packets twice a day. 

Each of us can be a shelter to others; I hope someone would offer us a shelter of friendship and support when we need it. 

The dry branch on which the birds come to rest in between their flights, would stay bare but for these birds. The birds are like a decoration on this dry branch.

No situation that we are in can bring a helpless mood! A visitor who came to meet us told us  how he gathered a heap of pebbles found in the stream, by just picking up a handful during his morning walks. That was enough to spread on a portion of his courtyard. His was a mission to be pragmatic and purposeful to help himself rather than feel awful about not being able to buy pebbles from the market for an exorbitant price.

A branch might turn dry; our resources get depleted; friends might leave us; health challenges might come upon us; others might make you feel less needed; one might feel lonely.....! But none of these can take away the inner life of strength because God is the companion of the weak and vulnerable. 

I got reminded by this truth yesterday, when a family told me that their daughter wanted to greet me because, I encouraged her to continue her drawing lessons when she was bout to give up. Recently she got a prize for her drawing!  

No wonder, the apostle Paul left a refrain, 'Rejoice in the Lord' in his writing in Philippians3:1. It is 'God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world' (Philip.2:13-15). 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)