The Cow Bird

Living outside the city is an interesting experience. For one thing, the day starts earlier, easier. And birds are a part of that early morning experience. The killdeer already has it's voice tuned by 5:00 am. Other birds are not so energetic. But we have one bird for which I have yet to develop any respect. It's the cowbird. I haven't yet seen it before noon.

The cowbird looks like almost any other black bird, like the grackle, the blackbird or even the starling. One main difference: the cowbird has a brown head, almost like a hood, or a paper bag to hide its identity. I think if I were a cowbird, I'd be embarrassed too, and I'd also want to hide my identity.

By nature, it's a lazy bird. It shirks its responsibilities. It actually lays its eggs in the nest of another bird, such as a robin, and then leaves them to be hatched, fed and raised by the robin. It abandons all responsibility for its own children. I may have more to learn about the cowbird, but so far, I'm not too deeply impressed! Parasite is hardly a complimentary designation!

Some people don't impress me either. They shirk responsibility too, and probably should wear paper bags over their heads. They are the ones who say, "Let someone else do it". They are the ones who milk the government for all its worth. They are the select few who manipulate the system for unnecessary unemployment payments, or collect `compensation' on pretty flimsy grounds. They are constantly draining government resources on the one hand, and complaining the loudest when taxes go up on the other hand.

Oh, I know there are relatively few of these types, but they're like cowbirds, and they've never learned the simple joy and shouldering their own responsibilities. Christians should never be cowbirds. Paul says it pretty well in 2 Thess. 3:10-12:

"For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our LORD Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread."

I suppose there are some in society who dream of a work-free society. They look forward to retirement at as early an age as possible. I suppose that's O K, but just ask the majority of those who retire too early in life. Life becomes boring and less palatable. The daily challenge of life itself gives way to a spiceless daily meal of bland nothingness. We should actually enjoy our work. Genuine pleasure can be found in accomplishing a job and reaping the benefits. See Isa. 65:22:

"They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."

God's people are honest, hard working people. A fact Solomon wisely defined many years ago. He wrote in Ecc. 2:24:

"Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God."

Deliberate parasites are few and far between, just like the cowbird. But there are others who really need help.