Please say hello to the newest addition to our crew! Moses, our old black lab, now has some fierce competition! These little beauties are resting in a tiny nest snuggled in one of our hanging ferns on the little porch outside our kitchen door. I need to add that this is the door we go in and out of all day long, and their mama truly couldn't have picked a busier spot anywhere outside our house. They, however, seem utterly unfazed by the frenetic activity swirling around them--even when I stood on a chair and stuck my camera up there to take their picture. I must add that this has been a bit hard on the fern, as we cannot water it for fear of scaring or drowning our new neighbors--but ferns can be replaced. The joy of watching God's amazing creation up close is irreplaceable.
We have absolutely loved hearing and watching them everyday, and we'll all be crushed on that sad day when it's time for them to fly off on their own (gee, sort of like our children, isn't it? So hard to love them so much and then lose them to the big, glorious world.). We can hear them throughout the day chirping every time their hard-working mama comes back from foraging for food. Their tiny cacophony of chirps periodically provides a joyous chorus to our kitchen. What a beautiful sound God created in the songs of birds! Lord, I have to agree--"It was good!" And to watch these delicate creatures soar through the air and land lightly and perfectly on the slimmest edge of a brick or the leaf of a fern--wow, Lord it was awfully awfully good!
Not only has their happy singing and chirping brought us much joy, but, there's just nothing like watching the mama bird coming back and forth, over and over again, to feed those three hungry mouths--uhh, well, I guess it would be beaks. Here's how it goes down multiple times a day: all is quiet on the western front, and then suddenly, we hear all kinds of excited chirping. We (that would be whoever is home at the time--except Moses, who seems quite unimpressed) all rush to the window and watch three little beaks/mouths sticking straight up in the air. All you can see above the leaves of the fern is their beaks/mouths opening and stretched impossibly wide and welcoming--ready for whatever delicacies mama has found for them. Yum, I'm betting those worms or bugs or whatever it is taste mighty good. I guess it's a small price to pay for being able to fly over the tree tops--I think I'd eat my weight in worms if I could soar or sing like that.
As usual, I digress--sorry.
Here's the thing, don't you wonder what those little guys think when mama disappears? Their only source of food and comfort and security suddenly vanishes. Surely they have no earthly idea where she's gone. Do they worry that she is never coming back? Do they fret that they just ate their last meal, and now they are on their own? Do they talk amongst themselves--"We're in trouble now. How are we going to find food when we can't even figure out how to get out of our nest? I told you to ask her how she does it, but, noooo, you just live in a little dream world and now, here we are, all alone, helpless and hungry. Nobody cares about us. Mama doesn't love us or she would never leave us like this. We're doomed... oops, wait wait, here she comes!!! I just knew she would be back! Right here, mama, right here! Down the hatch--I'm hungry! Feed me first! No, me first, me first!"
Do they bother to say thank you before she tirelessly flies off again to find more food for her brood? I doubt it, but that doesn't deter her one bit. She just keeps going and coming and feeding all day long, day after day.
The Lord has so convicted me by our little bird family. For are we not those little baby birds--waiting and watching for our Lord to feed us, to teach us, to help us, to do all for us that we could never ever do on our own? Yet, do we wait patiently and faithfully and trustingly like those baby birds? When He doesn't answer our prayers just the way we want Him to, how quickly and sinfully we can begin to doubt His love and faithfulness. When He is seemingly silent, do we think He doesn't care or doesn't see or will not answer or act?
O how faithless I am, Father, to doubt what I cannot see or do not feel! Forgive me for the times I doubt Your love when You don't answer my prayers right on my selfish little time schedule. Forgive us for failing to believe and know that You are doing a thousand different things in any and every situation that we cannot see and do not know. For You are always always always at work, moving and active in our lives--like that mother bird. Just because we cannot see You or feel You does not mean You are not orchestrating events behind the scenes in ways we cannot begin to imagine or hope in our wildest dreams. You are forever faithful, and when our hearts grow discouraged and fretful, might we counsel our wills to trust the One who proved His eternal love and faithfulness on the cross. Might we go to the Word and be fed... feasting like those little open beaks on Your forever faithfulness and love and grace as revealed in Your love letter to us, the Word.
Jesus told His disciples "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouses nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?" (Luke 12:22-26)
Why, indeed, are we anxious? And when has your anxiety and fretting helped you or your loved one in any way whatsoever? Maybe it's time to obey Jesus' words to consider the birds and recall God's faithfulness.
And He also told them (and us): "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Luke 12:6-7)
Thank You for birds, Father. Thank You for all You teach us through Your magnificent creation. And if You never forget even one tiny insignificant sparrow--or a helpless little baby bird sitting in a nest outside our kitchen--how much more will You never ever ever forget or fail one of us. You tell us not to fear, and You are faithful beyond all measure, loving beyond all reason, and gracious beyond all imagining. I think three baby birds resting in a fern outside our window would sing of Your faithfulness, day after day after day. And if they can sing, then surely mustn't I? Mustn't you?
"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God our Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changes not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!"
When mama bird disappears, she will always come back... and with blessings and surprises in her wake. And when Your Heavenly Father seems distant and prayers seem unanswered or hope shattered, trust, know that He is there. He is moving and active and busy on your behalf, and one day you will see and know and rejoice fully at His glorious faithfulness. As William Gurnall wrote nearly 400 years ago, "Behind the travail of every affliction is a blessing waiting to be born." Because behind even the travail resides our loving, omnipotent, sovereign Savior.
This week, whenever you see a bird, remember: Great is His faithfulness. Say it out loud! Let each bird you glimpse be God's tiny gift to remind you of His eternal loving faithfulness. He will not fail you, not ever; so feed on Him, and trust even when you cannot see. To God be all the glory forever and ever.
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