A Wee Bird

 

A wee bird popped onto the window ledge, inches from where I sat on the prayer seat. She gripped a white something in her beak – a grub? A bit of fluff for a nest under construction? She didn’t rest long enough for me to see. But I was left with the impression of her colouring, and when I looked in the bird book, it seems she was a sparrow. Just a sparrow.

My dad used to refer derogatively to sparrows. They were the main birds which populated our garden. He didn’t value them like God does, and it’s Dad’s words that pop into my mind when I identify the wee bird.

Jesus spoke much differently about the sparrow. ‘God doesn’t abandon or forget even the small sparrow he has made. How then could he forget or abandon you?’ Luke 12:6-7 and again in Matthew 10:29-31, he says, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.’

It's easy to feel insignificant, like just one of the crowd. Like just another sparrow. But that sparrow this morning was bringing a smile to our Father’s face as she went about the business for which she was created. Building a nest perhaps. Feeding herself, or her young. Eating and drinking and frolicking on the breezes. And she was bringing a lesson to me.

May we all know our intrinsic value today, whatever it is we are doing with our time. We just need to be all that we are meant to be. Lovers of God, with our eyes open and expectant that he has blessings beyond what we can even imagine. May we receive the truth that we are worth many sparrows in our heavenly Father’s eyes. Grace and peace.