Don’t kill the mockingbird (just shut him up)

I’m sitting on the back porch as the birds herald in the morning when I hear the cat-bird.  Yea, he’s back!  I love that odd avian sound truly mimicking a cat. 

Oh, wait.  Now I’m hearing a jumble of sounds (including the cat-bird’s) all mixed together, all different.  There seems to be a cacophony of twitters all coming from the same bird in rapid fire succession.  It’s still pretty dark, so I can’t see the perpetrator, but it’s got to be a mockingbird—that strange creation that can’t seem to find a voice of its own. 

The sun is coming up and I hear a rooster off in the distance.  I also hear a mourning dove nearby.  But mockingbirds, one can actually identify them by their meaningless chatter, poor things.

Actually, I don’t think they care.  They are only birds after all, and I find them amusing.

Fools have no interest in understanding;
    they only want to air their own opinions…

The mouths of fools are their ruin;
    they trap themselves with their lips…

The first to speak in court sounds right—
    until the cross-examination begins…

The tongue can bring death or life;
    those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

It’s actually been a few weeks since I composed the above.  Once again, I’m enjoying the cool of the early morning on the patio—the hummingbirds have found their feeders.  Cardinals, mourning doves, and I might have been visited by a chickadee the other day.  Even the ugly and squawking grackles came around—easily identifiable.   

I like that, clarity I mean.  I’m admittedly guilty of speaking before knowing all the facts, being unduly influenced by factors other than truth.  Of spouting off opinions that mimic others’ thinking, without (prayerfully) thinking it through for myself, and thereby finding my “own voice” on an issue.

As a follower of Christ, I have not only the responsibility, but the power to use my words to send a distinctive sound, one that is recognized.

Anything else is just a “mock” up. 

Proverbs 18:2,7,17,21 Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.