I find the large white birds intriguing. They are a huge bird, with mature birds reaching 50-70 inches in length and having a wingspan of up to 110 inches. They look a little ungainly but are quite graceful when they fly, with long powerful wing strokes. They are graceful when they fish, moving along with a gentle dipping motion to fill their huge bills. 

It was saying in the documentary that not everyone likes to see the pelican or the cormorant ( another large bird that eats fish). Both can eat a tremendous number of fish and can quickly empty out a small lake or pond in very short order. Some consider them to be almost an enemy of the fisherman. In fact the pelican was hunted to near extinction and only in the past 10-15 years are they beginning to be seen again in any number. An adult pelican eats mostly small shallow water fish that they can catch without diving. Yet they never eat more than they need to survive!

People are different. In many ways we are never satisfied.

Proverbs 27:20 NIV
Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 NIV
Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.

There is a part of our sin nature that wants more, more, and more. Advertisers take advantage of this tendency. They play on our greed and work to ensure that we are never content and spend all we have (even borrowing to spend what we have not yet earned) to chase the illusion that the newer, bigger, and better will be all that we require to be happy.

We have exchanged the bondage of slavery to the bondage of debt. We have exchanged contentment for a life of chasing things that will never fill us. We have exchanged the joy of a relationship with the Lord for the oppression of buying things we don't need and then having to look after them in time we no longer have.

True joy and contentment will never come from money, possessions, power, sex or prestige. True joy and contentment come only from an ever deepening relationship with and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Until next time, may you be truly joyful and content.