Why I don't watch the news

As a school girl, I got into trouble with my teachers.  I didn't have my homework.  I had a hard time understanding long division.  I got into a fight with a bully.

My adoptive mother used to sigh, and I could practically hear her begging God for some help.   One day, though, she had an unusual request to take me home.

My elementary school utilized window unit air conditioners.  They were encased in metal "cages" to prevent theft or tampering (you know kids).

One day before class, several other kids stood in front of the air conditioner, staring intently.  A small brown sparrow had fallen into the cage and gotten stuck, fluttering helplessly and desperately at the metal bars.

I was horrified.  I wanted to save the bird.  Flutter, flutter.  The sound of our voices really upset the poor thing.

A teacher came by, and I pleaded with her to release the bird.  "I can't," she replied "I don't have the key to open the cage."  I sobbed.  What would happen to the bird.  "Well, it will probably die."

I began wailing.  Someone had to save it!  The other kids started backing away as I cried so hard my glasses fogged up.  I couldn't bear to know the poor bird would struggle and flail itself to a hopeless, hungry, death.

I begged every adult to come and save the bird.  No one had the key.

They finally called my mother.  She picked me up and took me home.  She was very quiet and subdued. "Heather" she said "You have a big heart."

I believe I cried myself to sleep that day.

When I watch the news I'm reminded of that sparrow.  I see all these horrifying atrocities, perpetrated by "human beings".  I see the lost and crying victims.  The funerals.  The pain, and the scars.

Humanity has become my sparrow now, fluttering hopelessly in the cage of "self" and "sin".  I watch it flutter and flail, desperate for escape.

The worst part of all, the cage is open!  Jesus has the key, He paid for it with His blood, His pain, and His life.  Humanity just has to look up to Him and fly away.

But, caught in its' web of self, it would rather beat itself to death on the bars; of a cage that's already open.

That's why I don't watch the news.