Not One Sparrow Falls

In general, I like birds. I like waking up in the morning to their cheerful chirping, and I like watching them, and I like listening to their inconsequential commentary all day long. I am, however, in danger of being driven over the edge of sanity … by a sparrow. He sounds like a little chick who has been left away from the warmth of the lamp (or its mamma, as the case may be) and he has been sounding that way from about six o’clock in the morning until about eight o’clock at night for about a week. At first he was mostly in one tree, but I made the mistake of attempting to chase him away, so now he makes his rounds about my house, until there is now no place that is safe. I’ve taken to keeping my windows shut and turning on music, which is by no means my first choice, since I love having the windows open and being able to hear the little sounds of nature.

So in my tears (and yes, this bird has reduced me to tears on multiple occasions) I have been asking the Lord to show me what He’s wanting to accomplish here. Certainly it would be no difficulty for the Lord to deal with this situation. But in spite of what is now hours of sincere and intense supplication to the Lord, the sparrow’s habits have simply gotten worse. So what, I have asked the Lord, am I supposed to learn out of this?

One of the phrases which has frequently been on my lips during this sparrow episode is that I am much more valuable than the sparrow. Jesus, in fact, mentions this twice. On the one occasion he referred generically to birds and merely said we’re more valuable than they; the other time he specifically mentioned sparrows, and attached a precise monetary value to them¯two for a penny, or five for two pennies, depending on whose account you go by. If he was discussing it today, he wouldn’t be able to attach a monetary value to a sparrow at all, because no one would pay a penny for even many sparrows. That is how little value a sparrow has.

And yet, Jesus said, our Heavenly Father feeds them. And yet, Jesus said, our Heavenly Father is an active participant in both their lives and their deaths. My Heavenly Father is participating in the life of a creature whose only apparent occupation is frantic screeching. And in spite of how annoying that critter is, He feeds it.

I have to admit, it’s beyond me to relax with that continual racket taking place, but most of the time, it’s beyond me to relax, anyway. I’m invariably trying to do better and be better, trying to be worth more, so that God will interest Himself in my affairs a little more closely. As if I am not, already, infinitely more valuable than the sparrows He takes care of so well.

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