behind the scenes

The changes to the interior of our church are under way. The first phase has been completed. The pulpit is gone and the platform strengthened, with a backdrop to conceal the identity of the organist (or something like that). Comments on Sunday were very positive.

The wrong sort of blackbird!

The thing that most people did not know is that the work was inspected by a bird on Friday. Somehow a blackbird got into the church building and could not find its way out. It was zooming around and perching on different parts of the interior. I was a bit worried it might leave evidence of its visit in inaccessible places, and very worried when it decided to perch on one of our organ pipes.

In the end I opened a skylight window in the corridor next to the balcony and gently coaxed it towards the open window. Thankfully it decided to use the exit and I rushed across to close the skylight before it changed its mind. It seems that it left no permanent evidence of its visit as nobody mentioned anything yesterday.

Several disparate thoughts came to mind. One was a memory – at the Baptist Assembly in Bournemouth a number of years ago a pigeon got into the auditorium and flew around while we were sharing communion. Holy Spirit analogies came to mind.

The second thought was how difficult it was to get rid of. I could only coax it in the right direction and hope that it chose the right way out. Is that how God feels about us? He doesn’t force us to do anything. He may have a good idea of what is best for us, he might give us some hints, he might encourage us in the right direction, but ultimately whether we do or not is down to us.

The video seems appropriate at this stage.

Is that equivalent to coaxing blackbirds out of skylights?