Parable of the Stork

Have you heard the parable of the stork? Abraham Heschel tells us that Rabbi Nahman of Kossov used this parable. "A stork fell into the mud and was unable to pull out his legs until an idea occurred to him: Does he not have a long beak? So he stuck his beak into the mud, leaned upon it, and pulled out his legs. But what was the use? His legs were out, but his beak was stuck. So another idea occurred to him. He stuck his legs into the mud and pulled out his beak. But what was the use? The legs were stuck in the mud." The conclusion? "Such is the condition of man." We know this parable because we all embody it. We can kid ourselves all we want about our self-sufficiency, how we’ve got our act together, how we can manage any situation, but all of us are engaging in self-delusion. We all have either our legs, beak, or both stuck in the mud. We teeter on the brink of a demolished life every day. We’re all just one illness, one accident, one betrayal away from realizing the profundity of our mortal weakness. Notice that I did not say "becoming mortally weak," but *realizing* that this is always the case with us. So, what do we do? Give up? Try harder? No, rather, we confess that our lives, our children’s lives, our spouse’s life are upheld by the God who is unencumbered by weakness, by Jesus the Messiah. We are in his hands. Jesus is strong, yes. He is wise, yes. But above all, he is merciful, gracious, and fully invested in us. He’s not stuck in the mud. He reigns from on high. And he is our sufficiency. Indeed, he is our life itself.

 

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