On Saturday my 6 year old had our bird outside on the porch (while home with Daddy:) and put him down and then simply forgot about him. When I returned with the other 3 children, it didnt take long to see that our beloved Kennedy was not in his cage. Immediate panic came over everyone. After interrogating their younger brother and learning that he was left outside for over 2 hours already, we began a search party. (We live in the middle of 300 acres of woods!) After about 45 minutes of intense searching we came across a pile of gray feathers! We all thought it was Kennedy, but his daddy, Kyle, insisted that it was not and so the search continued. Finally there was a loud chirp that was unmistakably the sound of our beloved pet. We began running in that direction and whistling out hoping that he would return the whistles. After several minutes, we heard several calls from Kennedy. Running through briar patches, spiders webs, tall tick infested grass, and who knows what else, we all had our focus on the mission, which, I am happy to report paid off. Our beloved family member was found, franticly awaiting his rescue in the middle of a very large briar patch. Thankfully, Kennedys wings had been trimmed, and while he can still fly, he cannot gain much ground. Otherwise, the ending to this story could be very different! We immediately thanked God for keeping our precious bird safe while he was out on his own for such a long period of time. (Lets not forget the huge snake that we have lurking around our house!) Certainly God does hear our cries. I learned later that each of us, down to the 6 year old, was praying while we were searching and asking God to direct our steps. While some prayers dont always get answered in the way that we hope and pray that they would, we are all very thankful when God does graciously and mercifully answer the way that we had hoped. While happily nursing the scrapes and scratches, and removing the lovely ticks from each of us, we were thanking God for his mercy in this situation. My 8 year old sobbed when the search was over and Kennedy was found. He knew what a miracle it was and was so humbled at the realization that God had heard answered his prayer. I dont know exactly why God answers some prayers the way that we wish and not others and I never will this side of Heaven, but I will tell you that I believe my sons faith was increased and he needed that for whatever reason. It was such a touching sight. With all of this said, remember that God wants us to pray about even the small areas of our lives. Dont worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Philippians 4:6 NLT
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:53:07 +0000