Today’s guest blogger is Roma Maitlall.
My family and I have three adorable cockatiels who bring joy to our everyday lives with their unique personalities and endearingly spunky attitudes.
One afternoon, as my little sister and I were watching them sing together (a rare moment of harmony for the feisty trio), we wondered, what do cockatiels think about all day? Eating, sleeping, singing…pooping?
“Don’t you wonder what it would be like if they knew there’s a bigger, more wondrous reality beyond them?” my sister asked, petting one of their mohawks.
A bigger, more wondrous reality.
I paused, slowly realizing that maybe her question better applied to me, not our cockatiels. After all, this world—the world we live in now—isn’t the fullness of reality, and yet I often behave as if it is. I constantly worry about the future and stress about things I can’t control that I tend to forget that this world is only transitory—a mere bridge to a greater, more glorious destination.
My sister’s innocent question was ultimately a crucial reminder that I shouldn’t get too caught up in the goings-on of this crazy, exciting, scary world. Earth, after all, is just a shadow compared to heaven, a slight taste of the divine banquet that awaits us.
Every day now I try to be more mindful of the “bigger, more wondrous reality” that is heaven. I try to be more hopeful and less pessimistic, more faithful and less doubtful, and more calm and less anxious—a bit like my sweet little cockatiels.
“Our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul the Apostle reminds us, in his Letter to the Philippians. “And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21 NIV).
My hope for all of us in this beautiful and distracting world is to remember that we belong to a whole other world—one that is perfect and a billion times more wondrous.
