Learning

Flying Lessons

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment 
The hummingbird was sleeping in
When mother shook his wing
Wake up John it’s time for class
I heard the school bell ring!

He opened first one tiny eye
Then peeked out of the nest
He knew the day for flying lessons
What was his mom planned next

So out the door with trembling heart
John’s wings began to beat
Then up into the wind He flew
To lessons down the street!

But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 KJV


Flying Lessons by Peter Caligiuri 
copyright 2021 all rights reserved

My Mother the Bat and Being a Disciple

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. Matthew 13:16 KJV

Being a disciple means being a learner, and I learned from my mother that you can’t be afraid if you want to learn something new. As a science-fiction writer, she always was learning something new and doing a lot of research so that her books would be as accurate as possible. Her second published novel was about a planet whose people were blind and got around like bats using a radar like sense. This really impressed my eight-year-old imagination and got me wondering what it would be like to just listen like a bat to what was around me.

Photo by HitchHike on Pexels.com

Then one day as I was playing in the woods behind our house, I found a real live bat hanging upside down and sleeping a few off the ground on a tree trunk. Excitedly I ran home, found an empty peanut butter jar, then scooped up the bat, slid the lid over the top of the jar and raced home. I couldn’t wait to show mom! When I ran into the house letting the screen door slam behind me, Mom put down what she was doing and came in just as I flipped the jar upside down and dumped the bat on her kitchen table, shouting, “Look mom! A real bat!” Most women back in those days would have either run away screaming or they would have picked up a broom to send the poor bat into eternity. But not my mom! Because she wanted to learn more, she was just as excited as I was to watch our sleepy friend as he stretched his feet and slowly started crawling across the table. That memory got me to wondering how ready any of us are for what God has in store. The only way to be ready is to be in His word every day. Then when a bat is dumped on our table,  we’ll be excited to learn all about it instead of running away. That new thing God is bringing us is exactly what we need for the story He is writing in our life today.