One morning, as I was hosing off the front porch, I noticed high up on a corner wall, what I thought was a hornet’s nest. But upon closer inspection, I realized it was a bird’s nest, as it had a few little branches sticking out of the sides. Googling the oddly designed nest revealed that our house had apparently been adopted by a pair of Barn Swallows getting ready to raise a family.
A couple days later, I noticed a tiny little, fuzzy bird on the concrete, directly below the nest. Of course, I wanted to help it out somehow - perhaps try to put it back into the nest - but then I quickly came to realize that its Mom was not only eye-balling, but actually dive-bombing me, and so I decided to leave it alone and let nature take its course.
The next day - lo and behold! - we had TWO little ones on the front porch floor, huddled together for comfort. This made us realize that the parents were apparently pushing them out of the nest, for whatever reason, and so we simply checked on them throughout the day, watching in fascination how they were being fed and cared for by both parents. Mom and Dad were always close by, either sitting somewhere on the porch ,or the front lawn near the little ones, and taking turns flying around to gather food for their babies.
Once, when a fox tried to investigate the front porch for a quick snack, it was aggressively dive-bombed and driven out by Mom and Dad and at least a dozen of their Barn Sparrow friends! (Tom and I prayed for God’s protection of these sweet little ones, as there are lots of foxes in our neighborhood – two of which seem to like to sleep in our back yard sometimes.)
Anyway, as the tiny pair kept growing over the next couple of days, they began to venture out onto our walkway, away from the porch. We were very worried that evening, when they chose not to return to the porch, opting instead to spend the night several yards away in the middle of that walkway. The next morning, to our great dismay, we discovered one of the babies gone, and the other sitting quietly all alone on the front porch, with the parents hanging out nearby.
That evening, that poor little thing had to endure a second trauma via a major hailstorm that blasted us with some baseball-sized hail. We didn't have to rescue the birdie, though, as it was smart enough to hunker down behind one of the pillars on the front porch. Afterward, we saw Mom and Dad hovering nearby to to calm their quaking baby.
Several days have passed, and that baby has never again ventured out onto the walkway, so apparently it realized that the world can be a very dangerous place…
We’ve been “birdie hosts” for about a week and a half now - and our front lawn really needs mowing, but we’ve asked the lawn guy to wait until the little one takes flight, because we don’t to risk upsetting our little feathered family anymore than necessary. They've already endured enough.
So far, so good. That baby is no longer a little fuzz ball, as it has grown feathers and is even able to fly an inch or two off the ground now (it’s been trying REALLY hard). It shouldn’t be much longer before the family “flies the coop” for “greener pastures” – and honestly, we can’t wait because our front porch needs a good hosing down!
It’s been a fun adventure – and all I could think of this whole time is, "what an amazing ELOHIM we serve!" He has instilled in each animal, fish and bird, and all living creatures, the know-how to do and be exactly what they were designed to do! These tiny birds “just knew” how to raise a family; to take care of, and feed and teach their young.
You could truly see His Divine Hand in all this. You could tell that He knows and loves each one - even though, in our “fallen world,” they don’t all make it to adulthood. That's just how "nature" is, and we have to deal with it...
Regardless, that being the case, just think how much more He loves us humans - the ONLY ones to whom He gave Free Will ... and the innate knowledge to yearn for Him, learn of Him, to KNOW Him, and to CHOOSE to become like refined silver that reflects His Perfect Image! What an AWESOME God we serve - Halleluyah!
HE LOVES US:
Job 12: 7 “But ask the animals — they will teach you — and the birds in the air — they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth — it will teach you — and the fish in the sea will inform you: 9 every one of them knows that the hand of Adonai has done this! 10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the spirit of every human being. (CJB)
Matthew 6: 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (AENT)
Matthew 10:29 – 31: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (ESV)
HE KNOWS THOSE WHO ARE HIS, AND HE TAKES CARE OF US:
Luke 12:4. But I say to you my friends, do not have fear of those who kill the body and after that they have nothing more to do. 5. But I will show you whom to be afraid of. He whom, after he has killed, has authority to throw into Gehenna. Yes, I say to you have fear of him. 6. Are not five sparrows sold for two coins, and yet not one of them is lost before Elohim. 7. But even the individual hairs of your head are numbered. Therefore, do not have fear because you are more valuable than a multitude of sparrows.
8. And I say to you that whomever confesses me before men, the Son of man also will confess before the Messengers of Elohim. 9. But whoever denies me before men will himself be denied before the Messengers of Elohim. 10. And anyone who says a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes against the Ruach haKodesh will not be forgiven him.
11. And when they bring you into the assemblies before chiefs and authorities, do not be anxious about how your breath should depart, or what you should say. 12. For the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) will teach you at that moment what is worthy that you should say. (AENT)
Psalm 84:3 the sparrow finds herself a home and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young, [so my resting-place is] by your altars, Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God. (CJB)
That was beautiful Carmen!
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