My Duck

My Uncle Stan, who lives in Canada on a lake, gave me this cute plastic duck. It is a duck decoy so it is the same size as a real duck. It has been hanging around the house for years...20+. Easy to care for...no clipping wings, no feeding, no late night worries about some animal attacking it...just a little dusting now and then! LOL!

My son-in-law David decided to play a little trick on me one day while doing yard work. He took my duck, Stan, outside and put him in the birdbath. This birdbath is in the front yard just outside the window where my chair sits in the living room. Very view able. I glanced out the window and saw this duck sitting in the bird bath and it fooled me. At first glance I thought to myself that we had a duck right outside the window. I took a second look and realized it was Stan; not real at all. We all had a good laugh but Stan now resides there full-time. My grands love it. When they come to MeMe's house, Aiden always goes to the window and states,"MeMe, ducks still there!" and then Charleston goes to the window and repeats what brother has said.

Our minds are complicated but also simple. Your first impression is to notice a duck in a country environment and so you think it is real. After the first impression you realize it is just a duck decoy. This made me think about how we handle first impressions. I always worry about first impressions because this is not my strong suit. I usually am too talkative, try to be funny (and am not), and laugh too loud. If I were judged by first impressions I would never have any relationships because people would think I was a NUT...well maybe I am but that is another blog! 

But apparently the people in my life have pushed passed that first impression and discovered the real me. They have showed empathy and pity and tried to be understanding and shown me mercy. And what about God...think about the first impressions he gets from us with every new situation. Does he turn his back to us and walk away never giving us the opportunity to see that there is more to us...the answer is NO! God pursues a relationship with us no matter what first impression he encounters.He is the God of chances not the God of first impressions. What a gift to us! "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?" Micah 7:18.

We, as God's people, are to mirror Him to others. So just as God is patient and forgiving that is what he wants us to be with others, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12. Lord, help me be humble enough to be a giver of chances...to push pass the first impressions.

"if you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" Psalm 130:3


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