New Blog Post: A lesson from the birds

A fuzzy picture of the nest outside our stained glass window

Tammy noticed a robin building a nest on the sill of  the stained glass window in our bedroom. We watched with curiosity as that bird toiled and labored to construct a suitable home. The window is up high in the wall so Tammy being altitude challenged would get her little stool and peer over the edge to observe the progress.


Then there were little blue eggs there and the mother robin would come and go keeping a watchful eye on her little house. A week or so ago, Tammy discovered that the little eggs had hatched and two chicks were starting out their journey in life. Tammy would tell me to be quiet as I lumbered around our bedroom. She would check that nest as if it were hers every morning. She came and got me from my office yesterday in a hushed voice, "Brad, come back here!" The mother robin was busy feeding the babies. They were so small. We watched as our teenagers rumbled around the house being loud busy kids. 

Well today Tammy did her normal checking of the nest and the babies were gone. I couldn't help but notice that my wife's heart was broken. We both knew that those birds were too young to fly. They had either fallen from the nest or some predator had gotten them.

I got to thinking about that bird. The animal world for the critters is one filled with death and danger. Every day they struggle for survival. Something is always trying to eat something. They raise struggle to find food, stay warm, raise their young and stay alive.

I think we need to understand that we are not so far removed from that. Life is a struggle and my wife's heart for those little birds brought that very clear before me. We raise our little ones, struggle to provide for them, keep them alive till they can fly on their own. But predators lurk, the enemy prowls about like a roaring lion seeking to devour. We really do live in a perilous world fraught with danger.

I desperately wanted to find those little birds this morning for my wife. I searched through the shrubs below the window, hoping that I could find them and scale the ladder to place them back in the nest but I could not.

I have very little control over the events of life.

But, my theology comes to my rescue, for in my theology lies not  just in a God of precept or lofty philosophy, but a God who knew that those little birds were lost. Jesus said in Matthew 6:7-8 that even sparrows are not forgotten by God, that even the hairs of my head are numbered, or lack there of in my case.

My Theology also tell me that God in his infinite story generating power, will bring resolution to this drama that we live. Though now perilous and with enemies lurking we know that someday loss, destruction, decay, disappointing, sickness, disease, struggle and desperation....war, rape, hopelessness, and death will all be put away....for good. No more nests interrupted with peril and danger, just life to be lived and restoration.

This all comes through struggle, the struggle of the the nails, the thorns and the cross with Jesus on display. But it will end in resurrection and life.

How humbling it is to know that God has that kind of super awareness and that kind of super love, that little helpless birds are not unknown to Him, and neither are you or me.

I am thankful today that my wife's heart is so tender that it pointed me to the tender heart of an all present, all knowing, all powerful God!