My spouse and I love to watch families of quail when they come to our back yard. We call the very little ones peanuts because they seem to be no bigger than a peanut. Then they become little ones and from there become teenagers. This is about one of the teenagers. One day it was getting late and my spouse was looking in the back yard and noticed something odd. Taking the binoculars and focusing in on the Globe Mallow plant, we noticed one of the youngsters of quail was hanging upside down. It had gotten its claw stuck in one of the spindly branches and was not able to get loose. We thought it was dead because it was not moving at that time. We just had no idea how long it had been that way and the quail parents had already left to roost.

So grabbing the big orange rubber gloves, my spouse went out to remove the poor bird from the shrub and found that it was still alive. It had just given up the struggle and was resigned to die. I often wonder what story it told when reuniting with its family (we later found out that it did meet up with its family). May be its story went something like this: “There I was struggling and struggling but I just couldn’t get out of the tangle I was in and I just knew I was going to die. I gave up.  Then outta nowhere there was, like, these orange hands that lifted me up and cut me loose. Man, I was really scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen. The hands just let me down gently and I ran for my life. I gotta tell you guys, those hands saved my life.”

Perhaps you can guess where this story is leading. We are all in a struggle right now. The devil is having a field day keeping people chained down. He wraps them up so that when they struggle; he just tightens the grip of those chains. Remember he has had thousands of years to perfect his craft. Today, there is worry, fear, anger, people hurting others (not only physically but with the words they say), and so much more. We are just like this little quail when he was in a mess. Remember, none of us are exempt from the things the devil will use to chain us down. As a matter of fact, the closer we come to our Savior, the more the devil will try to keep that closeness from happening. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

However, we have this promise in John 8:31-32,36 which reads, “Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

So, if we surrender and put ourselves in our Lord’s capable and loving hands; we can also say, He loosed me from the bonds that were holding me captive and I am free. And like the little quail telling his story, we should tell someone else our story, and that is this– Jesus Saves!