A few weeks ago I noticed a scraggly looking nest wedged between the exterior of our house and our front porch light. I’ve seen the birds do this before and I don’t like it. It’s noisy to have birds right outside your kitchen window. More annoyingly, the cute nest eventually turns nasty and our yellow siding gets smeared with white and black streaks. So I took the nest down to discard it (unfeeling monster that I am).
But even my hard heart has its limits.
On my way to dump the nest, I noticed four tiny light blue eggs resting in the avian home. Not wanting to disturb the eggs I tried putting the nest in a tree or in a bush or on a picnic table. But the new lodging always seemed precarious for one reason or another. So I embraced defeat and put the nest back up outside our front door.
My kids are glad that I did. Last week the four eggs hatched. Now the formerly spacious nest is a mess of down and little beaks.
It’s amazing to think the Lord knows these newborns (Psalm 50:11) and feeds them (Matt. 6:26). He will, in fact, call on them to praise his name (Psalm 148:10). Even when I lift up my kids to take peak in the nest, I can hear the momma bird squawking in our pine tree, reminding me that she will protect her young as the Lord will protect his people (Isa. 31:5).
And then there’s this thought: the God who gives the foxes their holes and the birds their nest sent his Son into the world and gave him no where to lay his head (Matt. 8:20). The Lord loves birds, but he loves us much more than birds. Why else would he willingly live as less than a bird for our sakes?
