Lessons from the Passenger Pigeon

James 4:14. “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Last weekend Dad and I happened to be home alone. All you kids were gone with friends and so we did something we don’t normally do. We watched a PBS documentary on the passenger pigeon. My initial thought was how were the producers going to fill a whole hour with information about pigeons. But as the commentary went on I became more and more interested.

The passenger pigeon is a bird named after a French word meaning “to pass by.” Back in the eighteenth century until about the early twentieth century, this distinctive bird was very common and prolific. In fact it was at one time the most abundant bird in North America and maybe even the world. The birds would travel in huge flocks migrating from place to place. When they would fly over the horizon often a great shadow would cover the earth blocking out the sun because their numbers were so great. In 1866 one flock that was approximately one mile long took 14 hours to pass over the Southern Ontario sky.

These plentiful birds were taken advantage of in many different ways. They were a good source of food for the poor and for slaves. They were shot in huge quantities and shipped into big cities where they were sold at cheap prices. The passenger pigeon was also the predecessor of the “clay pigeon” and was shot for sport in great numbers.

Do not look for the passenger pigeon today because with misuse and the destruction of their habitat the once abundant bird is now extinct. Within 20 years the steadily declining fowl went from the most common bird in the world to being completely nonexistent.

How often do we take for granted blessings that we enjoy in abundance? When we are young we think that the days we have on earth are endless – there is plenty of time to do all we want to and accomplish all we desire. We find it hard to imagine our health deteriorating or  our strength vanishing. We imagine that we will always have our families and friends, the liberties and freedoms afforded by our country, and opportunities to make a difference in our spheres of influence.

This is a deception. You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. Your life on earth is only a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. That is why it is important to make each moment count – serving the Lord with all your strength while you are young. Don’t boast about tomorrow but do what the Lord tells you to do today.

Take a lesson from the very last passenger pigeon, Martha, who passed away on September 1, 1914, at the Cincinnati Zoo. Use your time and your resources wisely because the things you have in abundance today could be completely extinct tomorrow.

Love,

Mama