Open Hatch

Whatever kind of duck you may become this year, be a good one.

My wise, resourceful mother found this a while ago at an eBay store. The original is an image with text that is very hard to read, and I’ve ripped out the text and put it here with effectively the same images.  Here’s the link to the original, and if that goes down my own copy is here.  You know this is good from the combination of that picture of a duck with the first line. 

[begin] 

The Duck

First of all, think about yourself and your relationship with Jesus.  Are you personally more interested in looking like a duck than being a duck.  Ducks, as with all God’s creation, naturally have a built in knowledge about certain things.  They know instinctively many things.  They even know to hang around other ducks.

What would you say would be the most important thing that a duck should know?  If you answered, "He must know He’s a duck", you answered correctly.  So many times, we have been raised in spiritual environments that do not teach us about our identity.  Entirely too much time is spent on performance, in the hopes that, "If we work hard enough at being a good duck, then we will be accepted by all the other ducks", or worse still, "If we work really hard at being a good duck then the father duck will like me."

Just like a duck raised by dogs will think he’s a dog, he must be retrained to know who he is.  We are the same way.  Don’t allow what the worldly church says about you to determine your worth.  Say this with me, "I don’t do the things I do because I want do be like a duck.  I do things I do because I am a duck.  I am a real duck and therefore I will start, right now, being a real duck.  I, right now will begin to study my bible, not because I am afraid not to, but because that’s what ducks do.  I will begin to allow His word to soften my heart.  Not because of any other reason than that’s what I was designed to do."  Walk like a duck and talk like a duck because you are a duck.  Do the things ducks were born to do.

The Corporate Duck 

We can call our organizations a local church or Christian ministries all day long but unless they look like a scriptural church and act like a scriptural church, then we are no more than a cheap imitation of the real thing.  All squak and no quack.  God is raising a generation to walk upright and be totally submitted to His authority and His kingdom.  All our efforts to be like a duck won’t cut it.  We must turn our hearts toward God and allow Him to teach us how to become the great giant hidden within us.  This can only be done in total trust and yielding to Him.

Unless it looks like a duck and walks like a duck; unless it does everything else like a duck, then it’s not really a duck.

[end] 

I think this is funny.  Odd.  More odd than funny.  An odd duck. The duck that was supposed to be normal is odd, so my question is, what is a normal duck?  Are there no normal ducks? Are we all abnormal ducks?  Is it normal to be abnormal?  Then what really does abnormal mean?  Can a term which is only useful for relative comparisons remain useful if everything is relative?  And if everything is relative, wouldn’t that say absolutely that nothing is absolute?  So there must be absolutes - and where are the absolute ducks?  What is an absolutely normal duck?

Do you want the truth?  They’ll give you the philosophies of ducks!

This is the kind of lesson that really messes with kids.  "Say this with me, ‘..I do things I do because I am a duck.’" - "You are a duck". Man, if this is true, it would explain a lot.  All this time wasted becoming like little children, and you might have thought that was about the children of men.  But indeed no.  No, we should become as the little children of ducks.  We might think, in fact, that we should find our lost inner duckling.  Could it be there?  In soft, cuddly duckling form, the approval so longed for, so often elusive - "If we work really hard at being a good duck then the father duck will like me." We, the royal duck, will like me? - oh wait, is this the Collective Duck?  But you know, I’ve always secretly believed.. that God is a duck.  That, if true, would also explain a lot.

"I, right now will begin to study my bible.. because that’s what ducks do."  .. .. Really!?

"Just like a duck raised by dogs will think he’s a dog, he must be retrained to know who he is."  Yeah, I know a barking duck when I hear one!  Let me hear your real quack, apostate!  Or should I say you’re an apostate quack?  Where is your quack now?  No, not in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, nor the barking, but in the still, small quack.

Quack.. quack.. quack..

"Do the things ducks were born to do."  Q-uaa!  QWUAA!  QWUUUAA-WOOF!  I can’t.  I can’t quack.  The great Babylonian dogs have taught me to bark.  WOOF!

The Good Shepherd and the sheep, I comprehend.  A guarded flock, green pastures, still waters.  But ducks?  Quack, peck on your neighbor, eat mulchy muddy pond mush.. hmm maybe that does add up - is that starting to make sense?  "God is raising a generation to walk upright" - or waddle upright, maybe.  Well, if they’re American ducks..

Or maybe it’s not about a still, small quack speaking to a lost, inner duckling.  "We must turn our hearts toward God and allow Him to teach us how to become the great giant hidden within us."  I thought this was saying we are ducks?  This is really confusing.  Wait, does this mean we each have the potential to become a giant duck?

And so, to commemorate the potential giant duckhood of religion, I’ve prepared a series of celebratory t-shirt designs, not including by any means all religions, but beginning, as you see, with THE GOOD DUCK.