Darlene and Ducks

May 21, 2012

 

Darlene is so wonderful. She had said that Satan was trying his hardest to not get her to go to the church to be baptized. When we got into the church she started crying so hard. Such a tender moment. The entire world was against her, but she stood with God and He delivered her from the jaws of endless torment. She stayed holding on to the iron rod. She made it, despite the winds of the adversary. When she was baptized she came up out of the water and said, "I did it! I made it! It feels so good! This is right. Thank you so much." OH!!! experiences like that make life seem easier for a moment.

 

We saw Billy Ann the lady that is teaching us how to knit! We were sitting on the patio knitting and talking about the gospel and Sister Robbins saw some ducks walking in the middle of the street so she pointed and said "look ducks!" And Billy Ann was like "oh my!" and got up and started to run toward the street but mind you this woman is 78 years old. She's in good shape, but 78! So then we all got up and walked out to the street and Sister Clark (who goes with us) said she saw a baby duck fall into the storm drain and so we went over and there were 7 baby ducks in the drain!!! So Billy Ann ran inside to call the police for help, but no one came, so she ran a few houses down to ask one of her neighbors for a fishing net. We lifted the drain covering off and Billy Ann layed on her stomach on the nasty ground to reach as far down as she could to scoop the baby ducks out. We saved them!! It was so cool! So all together there was a mommy duck and 9 baby ducks and 7 went for a ride in the storm drain! So now the word, RESCUE has a whole different meaning to it. The mother duck was still super close by, never left the baby ducks in the storm drain, even though they couldn't see each other they were quacking back and forth. The babies wanted to get out, but couldn't on their own. We did all we could to help the ducks, and the mother duck didn't attack the rescuer. The baby ducks probably went through a lot of discomfort when they were in the net, but as soon as they were on their feet again ran to their mom. This can be like people that have lost their way in life. At one point or another we have all fallen into the pit of a storm drain. We try as we might but can't climb the slippery algea slimed wall. We see the light at the top, we hear the quack of our loved ones calling us back if we stay close to the drain. If we falter down a dark tunnel of drainage we may lose our way. We quack or pray to our Father in Heaven and ask for rescue then listen for His reply. We can only swim and try to stay afloat so we don't drown. Instead of wings enough to fly we are gently lifted out with a net. Discomfort of the net of repentance is obvious, but the joy of being on our feet again and running back is tremendous and we quickly forget the twinge of the net. Did we thank our rescuer? Did we remember what the storm drain looks like so we don't fall down that one again? Are we willing to RUN to fetch a net for those around you that have fallen in drains? You can learn a lot when we go knit with Billy Ann:) And there are so many other parallels you can come up with for this experience!