Bird in a Box

I may have made a big mistake. I started playing golf, and like any good American, because I started playing golf i felt the need to own a set of golf clubs. So, because Orangeburg is not the epicenter of golf equipment stores, I bought online.
The trash is picked up on Wednesdays in my neighborhood; my golf clubs came on Monday. Because golf clubs come in big boxes, and the trash was already full being it was Monday, I was forced to leave the box on my porch.
On Tuesday a mother wren moved into the golf club box, and by Wednesday morning had laid her eggs. Knowing that the trash dump is no place to hatch bird eggs I felt obligated to not, in effect throw the birds…to the birds. You must know that I grew up outside…with no shoes on my feet, a coon’ skin hat atop my bushy head of hair, and a BB gun in hand. If there’s one thing I have learned about birds it is that if you get your human sent on their eggs the mothers wont take care of them anymore, and you will be running an small egg orphanage in the back of your garage for the next few weeks. So, for the last few weeks there has been a bird in a box on my front porch. That is until today. The box is now vacant, and honestly I’m quite sad. The box is empty and finally ready for the trash truck. Life had taken up residence in that box, at least for a time, and that makes it something much more than just a box.
I hadn’t been able to put my finger in on, but I know now why I have such an issue with the idea that Heaven is about escaping this planet, and from a disembodied spiritual world, watch as the world goes to hell. Its not because this seems in our human minds just, and right, and even Biblical, but the truth is the world is not just a box, its where life happens, and that makes it so much more valuable.
Praise God that the Gospel is not one of escapism, but one of resurrection and renewal and newness, of final victory over death and corruption, of hunger and homelessness, of rape and war, and murder, even over the devil himself and all his demons…Hallelujah…. Praise God that we do not have to adhere to “just a box theology”. He has risen! Indeed!