Penelope's Song by Lillian

She was nothing much to look at.  Penelope was a bird. God only knows what kind of bird she was.  Some people called her an ugly bird. Few knew her real value.

Penelope loved the sunrise.  Each morning, she would sit on a branch and as the sun rose into the sky, she would call into the air a gentle thanks to God for creating the day.  The thing about sunrises is that they are so beautiful, solemn and joyous celebrations of overcoming. 

As the dark faded to grey then to warm golden tones, Penelope watched the sunrise usher in a blue eyed day.  She sent another call into the air. She loved to sing. 

One day, while quietly sitting on a branch in a tree, a group of kids came along on the their way to school and threw rocks at Penelope.  What they were doing was wrong.  Like most wrong things humanity does, they are not punished. They are defended and then life moves on leaving injury uncared for.  

"It's just a stupid bird"

"The bird flew into my face so I attacked her!"

One could create a thousand excuses. Yet the truth remains that the kids threw the rock, and the rocks hit this beautifully plain bird.  With a mournful wail, she fell to the ground, left for dead as the kids moved past to catch the school bus.

Little Madeline wandered out from her house that morning and saw Penelope on the ground. Madeline was 4 years old and not quite ready to go to school yet, but with her chubby, caring, soft hands she scooped up the injured bird and ran to her mother, crying.

"Mommy, the bird is hurting, can you fix it?" said Madeline.

Madeline's mom looked sadly at the bird. She didn't know what to do. She knew of a special place one could take birds to, a kind vet whose office was not too far away.   Carefully, the bird was placed into a special box and taken to the vet.   The vet carefully diagnosed a broken wing and taped the wing.    She looked at Madeline's tearful eyes and said "don't worry, I will help this little bird free of charge."

Madeline's mom asked the vet, "what type of bird is this?"

The vet responded, "it's a dove". 

So Penelope lived in the vet hospital for three weeks til she was well enough to fly again.   Carefully the vet set her free to the air and whispered "don't give up!"

Penelope watched the sunrise the next morning.  There was a tiny scar on her wing, but she survived the attack.   As the sun rose up into the sky, she sent out a beautiful coo coo coo....

Another blue eyed day. A Saturday in fact.   Penelope flew into the park and there were the same group of kids, celebrating a birthday party. One of them picked up a rock, but quickly, a parent's hand came and calmly grasped the boy's fist encircling the rock and said "no!"

I am reminded of a verse from the Bible that has continued to be my favorite through these past 8 years of healing.  "In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, for I have overcome the world."

Penelope was a survivor. She overcame the attack.  Will you take a rock and strike her? Will you chastise her for hurting when she was hit with that rock? Would you be like the vet who helped carefully love her back to health?  Was it Penelope's fault that the rock hit her?  Is she truly a stupid bird?

Kids grow up into adults and yet, we have a lot to learn.  Silence is golden except when it is intentional and judgementalism can corner someone who is hurting to a place deep within self.  Many survivors do not attend churches.  They feel judged and blamed.

Jesus walked to the cross for all of that, you say.  Why then, the anger? Why then, the silence? Will you throw a rock at a survivor?  

Amazing. For being such a stupid bird, Penelope was the symbol of something that needs to embrace the hearts of humanity and that is peace.  You can't do it by judging the hurting. You can't do this by blaming those wronged. You can't have peace unless you come to terms that it was YOUR HAND that held that rock. Each time you verbalized complaints against someone who is overcoming, each time you used the silent treatment to octracize that survivor, you held the rock, you nailed the nail, His hand into the cross.

Morning dawned the next day and Penelope continued to sing, for the very God you pray to never forgot His precious Penelope the Peaceful Mourning Dove, even though you did.

This story was especially written for those who have been writing in to the educatingtoendabuse.com website to complain about Peggy and her work. I wanted to share with you in a way that you can understand.  You cannot throw the rock and then welcome the person to go to church with you. There are wounded doves.  What are you going to do to care for them? If you are true to your faith, you will step up to that task.

What happened to the boys?  The ones that were not held accountable, went on to throw many more stones, and kill many more birds. The boy whose parent admonished his actions grew up into a thoughtfilled young man and one day, he travelled the world in search of this bird. He never found her til the day he died, when Jesus greeted him at door to heaven and on His shoulder, there was Penelope.  He never went silent on her, nor blamed her for the attack and finally, she was in heaven.  The scar on her wing was gone.  Amazing Grace.