I opened both doors and said to them, "Now’s your chance." But they didn’t notice and kept banging away at the windows.

So with my large hands, I gently picked them up one by one by their wings and carried them out the door. As they flew away, I experienced something of their tremor of freedom and sense of liberation.

However, two or three of them would not let themselves be easily caught. As my hand approached, they scooted higher up the window. But finally they too gave in to my touch, and I released them into the sky.

I don’t have to spell out in too much detail the lesson the Lord taught me through this little experience. The windows are the mirages of freedom in our lives, false pathways where we flutter around, walls against which we bang our headsmirages that we call freedom.

We get exhausted in our thrashing about, and though in our deepest hearts, we may suspect that maybe this isn’t freedom at all, we usually keep thrashing about anyhow.

But every once in a while, the gentle, merciful hand of God approaches. When this happens, we are threatened by it. We feel this hand trying to grasp our wings, and we think it will keep us from being free. So we continue to bang desperately against the window. And usually we keep eluding this hand as long as we can.

For we fear that he will crush us, will destroy the only freedom we have ever known—this thrashing against the windows of prestige and personality-building and the opinions of other people.

Then one day through some miraculous insight, or perhaps even from sheer exhaustion, we pause. We stop struggling, and we allow that hand to grasp our trembling wings.

There is a moment of breathless suspense and even a kind of panic. Are we headed for destruction?

Suddenly, we experience a release of our powers. We inhale a wonderful gulp of real fresh air—perhaps for the first time in our lives. We discover that the windows are gone, and we can fly off into the blue sky.

So let us allow God’s hand to hold us. If we do, we will find that our freedom, rather than being taken away, will be released and re-directed. We will be able to fly into the true country of our souls. For true liberation consists in allowing God to set us free.