prairie chicken

Dropped husband off at school (worst part of my days off), put in an hour at the gym, treated myself to a nice long, hot shower, crawled back into bed with a class of chocolate milk and a good book, and basked under an open window with the sun streaming in. Not a bad start to my day, if I do say so myself. And then I accidentally fell asleep. For two hours. Oops. Sorry, I'm not sorry. It was perfect. I woke up to the mailman ringing the doorbell (yes, I would have stayed asleep for another hour had that package fit in our mailbox). And he had THIS to deliver...

What can I say? I got SWAG. And it's because I got SWAG, I know I will not die as a prairie chicken. ...Say what? There's a Native American story about an eagle... His egg was found by a man, who put it in the nest of a prairie chicken. The eagle hatched with the chicks and grew up with them. He spent his whole life thinking he was a prairie chicken, scratching the ground for food, flying only a few feet in the air, clucking... One day he saw beautiful bird way up in the sky soaring "with a graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents with scarcely a beat of it's strong golden wings". The eagle asked his neighbor what kind of bird it was, and the chicken told him it was an eagle, the chief of all birds. He then told the eagle not to give it a second thought, he could never be like him. So the eagle never gave it a second thought, and died thinking he was a prairie chicken.

Sometimes our circumstances cause us to settle for second best in life. But I know that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). I know that God has a plan for me that is far greater and better than any plan I could create on my own. And I know that I don't have to, nor will I, settle for mediocrity. I have been saved with amazing grace.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit." (John 15:5) And man, oh man, do I like strawberries...