Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt
I am republishing this by request! I hope It will be a blessing to you! ~ Pastor Tim
I am so thankful to the Lord for His intimate caring and involvement in my life. I am thankful daily for His grace and wisdom to help me in the myriad of things I need help with. Some people don’t like to admit they need help. I am not one of them. I see the Lord’s influence in my thought-life and decision making, and look for His wisdom in all things—big and small. He promises to give us wisdom. Proverbs 2:6 ESV says, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” I rely on that promise like a fish relies on water.
One day, I came home from work to eat lunch. As I was getting out of my car, I saw a duck by our curb that was acting frantic. It kept walking in circles and quacking. Then it would fly in a small circle, land, and walk again in a circle making a frantic quacking sound. I watched for a couple of minutes but couldn’t figure out what the duck was doing. As I started to walk into the house I said, Lord, what is the problem with that duck? Suddenly, the answer came to me. It’s babies fell through the street grate into the sewer. I stopped in my tracks, went and got a spotlight from my garage and went over to the sewer grate a couple of feet from where the duck was standing. I shined it down, and saw and heard six little baby ducklings.
They didn’t know what to do. Nor did mother duck or myself. I thought, Lord you showed me that they were here. You didn’t show me that so that I could do nothing. What should I do? Suddenly I saw another picture in my mind. This sewer ran underground to the creek in my back yard. The end of the sewer exited into the creek with a grate over it. I ran to the ends of sewer extending into the creek. I got down by the grate and began making duck calls. I probably sounded like a fool but what the heck, I was on a rescue mission. I thought the ducklings could hear me because it seemed like I could hear them moving toward me as I quacked. (No jokes about being a quack please!)
I went back to the mother duck and tried to coax her to the back yard. It wasn’t working. I went back to the creek sewer entrance and quacked some more. The babies were coming toward me. The mother flew toward me to see what I was doing. I lifted the grate figuring she might hear her babies and go get them. She did. She scooted them out until they exited into the creek and swam away. If ducks can smile, she was smiling!
I went into my garage and got some birdseed. I put it on a ceramic plate and called (yes quacked) for them to come and eat. They came and dove in it. It was a fun ending to a traumatic event for them.
Later that day, the Lord spoke to me about what had happened. He said, Today you experienced what I do daily. People get in a crisis. They cry out to me. I try to lead them to their solution but many are so absent of faith and blinded by their crisis that they can’t see past it . The Lord said, Just as you had the ducks best interests at heart the entire time, so do I. But, because people are paralyzed by fear instead of being at peace while leaning on me in faith, they too often miss their help. 
Jesus reminds us of His love and care for us always, saying, “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7 NLT)
I thank God that He does care for us intimately and in every detail of our life, from the most important things down to helping distressed ducks. His wisdom and grace to help are available to us for every situation. So be confident in His love for you, pray for wisdom for everything you do, and then lean on Him in faith! Praise His Holy Name!
James 1:5 (NIV) “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt
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