Appreciation Unexpected – I Appreciate That!

Late one night recently, I began to doze off while watching that last bit of a Netflix movie I could squeeze in before drifting hopelessly off to dreamland. I opened my eyes, looked up and saw my maroon-bellied conure parrot, Beetu, sitting on the outside of his cage, facing me. He was kind of “hissing” at me with his tongue out, simply behaving like a baby bird looking for attention from its parent. As soon as he saw I was waking and beginning to get up from my chair Beetu knew it was our official bed time. He quickly climbed around to the front of his cage, through the door and up to a nice high spot at the front, clinging to the bars – and waiting expectantly for me to do the next part of our nightly routine. Yes, he was eager for me to “tuck him in”. This is a time when I drop everything else and lavish praises on him – “Good baby, Beetu. You’re such a good, good bird, etc…” for at a minute or more. He responded with his usual “happy baby bird” gestures like a bobbing head, fluffed up feathers, and lightly fluttering wings. I’m convinced I could do this for an hour and he would keep eating up the attention. The little parrot really lives to hear these things from me, and to hear them said in a gentle, encouraging way.

So, my pet parrot was fully expecting the nightly praise ritual he knew was coming his way, and it meant so much to him. After ending this and covering his cage for the night, I was walking into my bedroom so I could turn in. Just then it occurred to me that, each day for the past three days, an unexpected praise had been lavished upon me, by someone different on each of those occasions.

Day One – On Wednesday evening I received a Christmas card from a man for whom I have great respect. In the card, he pointed out how wonderful it has been for him to see me grow as a Christian in the past year or so, and his appreciation for the way in which I use God’s Word in our discussions. Day Two – on Thursday a co-worker surprised me by describing how impressed he is with the body of work I’ve done in the years at my job. Day Three – on Friday evening when I entered the front door of a coffeehouse where some friends were playing their songs, I was surprised to be greeted with cheers by lots of former church friends who were already there, and whom I don’t see as often these days. Their “praise” toward me was humbling, yet welcome, and both unexpected and exuberant!

I pondered this and noticed an interesting contrast. My pet parrot was living for the praise that he fully expected would come from me. It is a part of his routine. But even though he knows it’s coming, he totally thrives on the praises. He simply devours them. I, on the other hand, had been completely surprised three days in a row by unexpected praise. I noticed that I had to consciously let my guard down a bit on each occasion, enough to fully appreciate what was being said to me, so that I could enjoy the moment and “soak it in”.

I almost missed it that night – I almost missed putting it all together and noticing that God had arranged this gift for me – three days in a row of praise and encouragement. But still, I do think it’s healthier to not expect people to lavish words of kindness on me, and simply enjoy the pleasant surprise when it does happen. I think I can appreciate the praise more this way than if I were to expect a daily ritual of attention and sweet, encouraging words from some key person, the way my pet bird expects it. What if that key person lets me down one day, and fails to fulfill my cravings for those kind words? Hmm. No problem, as long as that key person is God Himself. I know that He loves me, and I know He is right there, even on those days when I don’t seem to hear anything from Him. After all, I do believe that God meant it when he said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU” as we are reminded in Hebrews 13:5-6, and, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (Romans 8:35-37). That knowledge, deep in my heart, of God’s steadfast love, is all I really need. But it certainly is nice when He lavishes good words of His love and encouragement on me like He did three days in a row recently, through unexpected ways and unexpected people.

What is the lesson here? I don’t want to presume you’ll find something of value to take away from this. But for me, I think it means I should probably start paying a little more attention, and hopefully I’ll notice when God is at work encouraging me and building me up. If I could only get a clue of how much He loves me, Wow! That could be life-changing, couldn’t it?

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