Jesus said, “What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. God pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail – even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries”. (Matthew 10: 29 – 31)

The kid was 10, old enough to enter the part of the pool where the diving boards were. A few of the big kids stood around taunting the smaller kids who refused to climb the high platform. “What are you, chicken?” one of them would say, and the others would strut around bawk, bawk, bawking away like chickens.

The kid liked going off the low dive but was afraid of the platform. They teased him mercilessly, and soon he was just standing on the side of the pool, his towel draped around his shoulders, looking miserable as kids splashed and screamed all around him.

His older brother asked, “What’s up?” He answered, “They’re making fun of me ‘cuz I won’t go off the platform”. The brother looked around at the kids playing in the pool. “Well, do you want to go off the platform?” he asked. “No way!” said the little brother. “So what are you really afraid of?” his brother asked. The younger boy answered, “I’m afraid of what they will think if I don’t”. His brother looked at the punks, then looked at his little brother and said, “Well, you don’t have to be”.

Jesus warned against those who, by engendering fear, will destroy our soul. A short time later, the kid was fearlessly doing cannonballs and belly flops. By the end of summer, he was leaping from the platform as free as a bird.