If you put a buzzard in a small pen it will never fly out, even if the pen is open at the top. The reason is that buzzards always take off after running about three metres. Without space to run, it won’t attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life. Similarly, bats, despite their amazing agility in flight, need a slight drop to launch themselves and cannot take off from a spot that is level. And bumblebees, if dropped into an open glass, will stay there until they die, because they never see the means of escape at the top, but keep trying to escape through the sides near the bottom.
In many ways, we are like buzzards, bats and bumblebees. We struggle with life’s problems, never realizing that what we need to do is look up! ‘Look to God,’ the Bible says, ‘and be radiant. And your face shall never be ashamed.’