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[Fred A. Miller]

Louis Cassels was religion editor for United Press International. His
"Parable of the Birds" has been reprinted and rebroadcast on radio
many times in the years since it first appeared in the Christmas
editions of newspapers across the country in 1959.


The Parable of the Birds

Once upon a time, there was a man who looked upon Christmas as
a lot of humbug. He wasn't a Scrooge. He was a very kind and decent
person, generous to his family, upright in all his dealings with other men.

But he didn't believe all that stuff about God becoming man, which
churches proclaim at Christmas. Why would God want to do anything
like that?

So when his family left to attend midnight services on Christmas Eve, he
stayed home.

Shortly after the family drove away snow began to fall. He went to the
window and watched the flurries getting heavier and heavier. Sometime
later, as he was reading his newspaper by the fire, he was startled by a
thudding sound that was quickly followed by another. Then another.

When he went to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably
in the snow. They had been caught in the storm, and in a desperate search
for shelter had tried to fly through the window.

"I can't let these poor creatures lie there and freeze," he thought. "But how
can I help them?"

Then he remembered the barn. It would provide a warm shelter. He quickly
put on his coat and boots and tramped throught the deepening snow to the
barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on the light.

But the birds didn't come in.

"Food will bring them in," he thought. So he hurried back to the house for
bread crumbs, which he sprinkled on the snow to make a trail into the barn.

To his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop
around helplessly in the snow. He tried shooing them into the barn by
walking around and waving his arms. They scattered in every direction --
except into the warm, lighted barn.

"They find me a strange and terrifying creature," he said to himself, "and I
can't seem to think of any way to let them know they can trust me."

"If only I could be a bird myself for a few minutes, perhaps I could lead them
to safety."

Just at that moment the church bells began to ring. He stood silently for
awhile, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.

Then he sank to his knees in the snow.   "Now I understand," he whispered.
"Now I see why You had to do it."

-- 
"As Internet technology itself vaults into new areas, so too does the
Microsoft monopoly and its tried-and-true bag of tricks."
-US Senator Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah