Apollo is a cockatiel who loves attention. The very first day that Kristina, his owner, brought him home to live with her, he followed her around the kitchen while she cooked dinner. He was only 6 months old. His little feet ran very fast to catch up with her, because he was too young to fly yet.
Soon Apollo learned to fly. Whenever anyone came into the room, he would fly to their shoulder and begin whistling his favorite songs.
How did Apollo learn to sing? Kristina taught him every day. He also learned to play peekaboo with Kristina, which was a lot of fun.
One day Kristina made a video of Apollo playing peekaboo. She wanted her mom and dad to see how talented Apollo was, so she put it on YouTube for her parents to see.
Kristina was surprised when many different people around the world started finding Apollo’s video and pressing the “like” button. Soon Apollo’s video had more than 100,000 views! Everybody loved Apollo. He became very popular.
Soon Kristina got an e-mail. A company wanted to pay Kristina to use Apollo’s video on TV. They sent Kristina $250! Wow! Apollo and Kristina were rich! Kristina bought Apollo a shiny new food bowl and some new toys.
Kristina searched for Apollo’s name online and found out that people were writing blogs about him. These people didn’t know anything about Apollo’s real life, but they took pictures from the video and made up stories about him. Other people made their own videos with their own birds, copying Apollo because they wanted to be popular too.
What happened to Apollo doesn’t just happen to the cutest pets—it happens to people too. Have you ever posted a picture or video on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube and watched carefully to see if you would get lots of views? Have you ever looked at a friend’s post and been jealous of how much attention they got? We sometimes try to use our talents to get more attention. Other times we try to copy other people so that we can be cool and popular.
But what happens if your posts or talents don’t get many likes or much attention? If we determine our value only by what others think of us, we can become sad and lonely. Jesus is our true friend. He wants us to know that we are valuable to Him no matter what. He loves us so much that He died on a cross so that we can spend time with Him forever in heaven.
When Jesus was on earth, He asked His disciples a very important question: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (Luke 9:25, NIV). So instead of copying other people to try to become popular, why not spend time copying our best and perfect friend, Jesus? When we imitate Jesus, we become better friends to others, and the best version of our unique selves.
Apollo’s story reminds us that attention on social media is very small compared to the special friendship Jesus wants to have with us.
Bible Treasure
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
(Luke 9:25, NIV)