A chidren’s story tells the tale of a little orphaned bird fortunate to be taken in by a mother duck. She had misgivings as the poor waif was rather ugly, wrong color, wrong- shaped head, strange beak, and maybe worst of all, he couldn’t quack! He just made terrible noises when he tried to imitate the others. He was teased mercilessly by the other duck kids for all his weirdnesses. Finally, after weeks of absorbing the rejection, he swam off by himself, bemoaning his lot in life, conceding that he was, gulp, unacceptable. He attempted to keep away from the duck family to avoid further embarrassment, but one day, he came across the whole bunch of his estranged brothers and sisters. They stared at him in wonder, recognizing him immediately, and exclaimed: Why, you’re a swan! Startled, he said: Who, me? A swan? They responded: Yes! Look at your reflection in the water! You’re beautiful! I am? He said, looking down into the water. Whee! I am a swan! With that, he let out a loud squawk, accompanied by the celebratory quacks of all his brothers and sisters.
The question for us, arising from this tale is, when did he become a swan? The answer to that question is obvious, he was born a swan! The intrigue of my recounting this (version of my) tale is, so what? I’m glad you asked! We are surrounded by those who, because we do not look, or sound, like them, or do the things they do, will criticize or humiliate us to pressure us to conform. This is the ‘glorious’ outworking of being in, but not of, the world just as Jesus said.
If, like that young swan, we concede that we are unacceptable, we simultaneously close our eyes and ears to all the stunning things Jesus said about us, and that’s enough to make our hearts soar! But there’s more! There’s everything Paul communicated to his churches about the riches of those who are in Christ; specifically, our destiny and our calling. Maybe we just need to be with likeminded folks who speak truth to us. And then, maybe we need to look down to see Jesus’ reflection in the water. PD
