Be a Swan, Not a Duck

How many of you know the story of The Ugly Duckling? In the story, a mother duck sat on a nest of eggs waiting for her babies to hatch. Time after time she heard the sound, "Craaaak!" When she looked, there was a baby duck hatched from one of the eggs. One by one the eggs hatched until only one was left. She sat down on the egg to wait... and wait... and wait. Finally she heard the sound again. ‘Craaaack!’  And there it was -- another baby. Somehow, he didn’t look like the other baby ducks. In fact, she thought he was rather ugly. But he hatched from her nest so she thought he must be her baby and so she took him to the pond to play with the other ducklings.

When the other ducklings in the pond saw the ugly duckling, they all laughed at him, made fun of him, and told him he was ugly. The little duckling was so sad he left the pond, but everyone he met treated him the same way, even the farm animals.

The little ugly duckling kept walking and finally came to another pond. In it were beautiful swans. The little ugly duckling wished he could be like the beautiful swans. By now it was winter and he was cold and lonely. It got so cold that the ugly duckling's feet became frozen in the pond. An old farmer saw him and felt sorry for him. He finally got him unstuck, but the duckling thought he would make fun of him too, so he went off to hide. He didn’t know there was a better future waiting for him.

When spring came, the ugly duckling went back to the pond. What did he see? The beautiful swans were swimming in the pond! The ugly duckling thought to himself, “I sure wish I was beautiful like those swans and not just an ugly duckling.” He looked in the water and saw his reflection. Guess what? He was not an ugly duckling anymore! During the winter he had grown into a beautiful swan. The other swans saw him and invited him to join them. They all flew over to the duck pond. The other ducks saw that the ugly duckling had turned into a beautiful swan while they had remained ducks.

You and I are like the "ugly duckling" in this story. If we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we are like beautiful swans. We don’t fit into this world any more than the ugly duckling belonged in the duck pond. Those who won’t accept Christ as their Savior will be like the ducks. They will make fun of us, call us names, and not let us hang out with them; stuff like that. They won’t like us because we don’t look like them or act like them. But do you know what? That doesn’t matter because a better future awaits us in Heaven while the ducks will just be ducks in a pond.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Son Christ Jesus and for choosing us as your swans. We long for a better future with you in Heaven. Help us to not be like ducks while we wait. Amen.