Can't you just see God's paintbrush at work on this little inmate of the Denver Zoo?

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the fact that the Virgin Mary was presented in the Temple to serve God when she was but three years old. In a chapter about this feast, Don Gaspar Gilli, in his The Month of Mary, According to the Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, discusses the question of what we should do if we have not always perfectly served God from our earliest childhood. 

"It is the present time, the present moment, that we should turn to profit; because the past has escaped us, and the future is not in our power. But you ask, How can we repair lost time? You can do it by the use of fervor and diligence during the time that remains for your pilgrimage upon earth. Stags do not always run at an extraordinary speed, but yet, when pursued by the hunter, they quicken their movement and seem rather to fly than to run. This is a model for us. We must not only run, but fly in the way of perfection."

So if we need to make up for lost time, all the more reason for us to "take flight" like this little bird, and fly Heavenward by constant acts of love and self-sacrifice!