November 2015

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Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty. You are dressed in a robe of light.
Psalm 104: 1 - 2b


Bird Watching

            To celebrate our thirty-ninth anniversary in October, my husband and I returned to one of our favorite places, Turkey Run State Park, where we honeymooned all those years ago. This time we went just for the day to hike, eat lunch in the Inn, and visit the Nature Center.

            The small observation room in the Nature Center is one of our favorite places to spend time. Couches face large picture windows, the way couches in a family room face a wide-screen TV. The view out these windows is of a wildlife feeding area enclosed by redbud, pokeweed, and other native plants, and complete with full-to-overflowing feeders of various kinds and sizes. There is also a tiny pond into which fresh water burbles from a pump. Every time we've visited, this area has been alive with squirrel, chipmunk, and bird activity of every kind. This is drama at its best--a reality show that's really real.

            Our recent visit was no exception. We watched gray squirrels and chipmunks strategize to claim the best feeding areas. (The hollowed out log seemed to be the prime dining area, though just below the feeders were popular spots, too.) Flying in and out to the feeders were, alternately, red-headed, red-bellied, and downy woodpeckers, goldfinches, nuthatches, a female cardinal, and a tufted titmouse or two. The goldfinches also splashed in the water along with, oh, yes, the sparrows. Many sparrows of more than one variety. A plethora of sparrows. Sparrows galore, birds that, for the most part, I was overlooking because of their numbers and gray-brown ordinariness as I searched for the flashier birds, fewer in number and sporting brighter colors.

            But to what bird did Jesus compare people when teaching his disciples about the Father's care for his people? The answer is as common and well-known to us as the bird--the sparrow.

What is the price of two sparrows--one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

Centuries earlier, the Psalmist wrote this about the lowly sparrow:

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven's Armies, my King and my God! (Psalm 84:3)

            I, too, am a sparrow.

            I, too, am a common bird the Father did not overlook. He's seen me fall many times, and yet, through his great care and mercy, he has allowed me to find a home in Him. "Come on, little sparrow," he's said and is still saying, "build your nest here, near my altar. Call this place home."

            Do you, too, see yourself as a common sparrow?

            At the Nature Center that day, after realizing I had been overlooking the sparrows, I began watching them exclusively instead of the showier birds, and I noticed something. When sparrows fly up, light glows like gold through the tips of their wings, too. It's really the only color they need.

 

Daye Phillippo

November 2015