Firebird

I was watching a movie called Unconditional the other day. It’s based on a true story about Joe Bradford and Samantha Crawford. Sam is living a happy life, everything’s going smoothly. She’s happily married and her dream of publishing children’s story books has come true. Then her husband is shoot and killed. Sam loses her faith and will to live. But as she’s holding a gun to her head and ready to pull the trigger, she has a chance encounter with two kids. This brings her in contact with an old primary school friend, Joe. Joe cares for and helps mentor young at risk African-American kids. I’ll stop explaining here because I don’t want to give the rest of the movie away. I thought I’d share one of Sam’s stories with you. Once upon a time there lived a little bird called Firebird. Firebird lived for the sunshine. He could bask in that glow for hours. But when the rains would come, he would complain to his Mama. He wanted to know why God gave the storms power to take away the sun. His Mama would just smile at him and say “you’ll know some day, when you take a walk on the clouds.” Now, over and over again the rains would come. And over and over again little Firebird would complain to his Mama until one day a huge storm rolled in and his Mama had a different answer. She said “it’s up there waiting for you, you just have to see it for yourself.” Now little Firebird was scared. He hadn’t used his wings much at all. Yet he went up into the great unknown but instead of answers he was met with lightning and thunder and a howling wind. He feared it would rip him apart. He was about to turn back when it happened. He broke through the clouds and there was the sun, more beautiful than ever. And in that moment, it all became clear. No storm could take the sun away. The sun was always shining. He just needed to take a walk on the clouds.