Yesterday you may have read "Food for Thought-A Grace Story". I introduced the God's Girlies mascot, Grace the plastic flamingo. I posted about the "pinkness" of flamingos.  Surely you know you're looking at a flamingo when you see a bright pink bird with the cane-shaped neck. Another telltale sign of a flamingo is a bird that stands on one leg though it has two long lanky legs.

Flamingos have an amazing balancing act.

As curious creatures, we want to know why.  Why does a flamingo usually stand only on one leg.  There are several theories.

1. The flamingo stands in shallow water much of the time.  It is suspected that just as we get wrinkly from being in the bath too long, the flamingo lifts alternating legs so that its webbed foot doesn't get wrinkly or water-logged.

2. Some scientists think that flamingos only think with one side of their brain at a time.  They also believe that as a flamingo rests, that one side of the brain is resting. And as one side of the brain is resting, the leg that is controlled by that side of the brain is resting too.

3. It is believed by others that raising one leg conserves body heat.  It takes energy to pump blood which in turn uses up body heat.  Tucking the leg is said to be similar to when we're cold and scrunch up in a ball. It conserves body heat. This is actually the most popular theory.

4. One other theory I read about is interesting.  It says that the raising of one leg is a camouflaging technique.  Supposedly the flamingo is trying to look like a tree?. And a tree has one trunk.  Two legs somehow doesn't look like a singular trunk of a tree. I'm not thinking a hot pink bird looks like a tree either.  If you're shaking your head at me, don't, I didn't come up with the theory.

I don't know why flamingos stand only on one leg.  And though curious, I'm not concerned.  My concern lies with how we as humans stand.

Here is where we are unlike flamingos.  We can't stand on our own two feet, much less stand firm singularly. Our balance must come from another source.

 Life is precarious.

 We live wobbly lives swaying this way and that. We need to be braced.  Sometimes we need to be held.  But understand, no thing or person brings about balance and right living in our lives like Christ.

To stand, really stand, when we're constantly up to our ankles in muddy water, it must be Christ that we are relying on.

Be on guard.  Stand firm in the faith.  Be courageous.  Be strong. 

 1 Corinthians 16:13

To Stand.

It doesn't simply say stand firm.

It says-  In the faith.

Not on your own.

Not living according to the prompting of your heart.

Not by the help of  your friends.

Not by some self-help magazine.

Stand firm in the faith even when it feels you're falling.

Trust.

 You're being held up.

And this post my friends...............is not for the birds.

I'd love to hear from you in comments or email- www.kristiburden@gmail.com