A Bird’s Message
"Ask now…the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?" (Job 12:7, 9).
Many years ago a missionary in the Congo was translating parts of the Bible. He had difficulty with some words about God’s message to Noah about building the ark. He sent a pigeon with the question to another missionary for help in the translation, and the other missionary sent the reply back with the pigeon.
The pigeon flew on its way, but first it rested in a native African village called Borogoma. A little girl in the village coaxed the pigeon to come near her, and after she caught it she took off the band on its leg. She took the band to a wise man in the village who could read it. "The bird brought a message from God, telling us to build a house of wood because of the coming of heavy rain and water," said the wise man solemnly. "It is the word of God, a God greater than we have yet worshipped." The village people were very astonished, but they all decided to build a house for this strange God who had sent a message by a bird, so they thought. The village people believed that birds were spirits that carried all kinds of news from place to place.
The people of Borogoma set to work to build a wooden house, as the bird’s message had told them to do. They had never built a house of wood before because the termites would soon eat it. But this was a message from God and so they must obey, and they kept fires nearby to keep the termites away.
One day a missionary came to Borogoma and how surprised he was, for he found a building already built and the people waiting for some one to tell them about that God! When he heard the story about the bird he realized how strangely and wonderfully God works, and he found the people of Borogoma were eager to hear and accept the Gospel story. Our story ends here, but we may suppose that many of the village people came to know the Lord Jesus as Savior. "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform!"
"God…does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number" (Job 5:8-9).
