Bits for Sunday, July 8, 2007

I love object lessons. I’m a visual learner and am much more likely to remember something I can see than something I only hear. Apparently God knows this, because most of what I learn from Him, I learn from seeing things He plants in my path.

Literally.

This past week I was out walking, and I was in a big hurry, because I was just sure it was going to rain on me. Being rained on mid-walk has yet to actually happen to me, so I figure I’m about due.

Ever the multi-tasker, I was on the phone with my Mom while I hustled along my merry way. I was just about to plant one hurried foot in front of the other when I noticed a decent sized rock in my path. I thought about stepping on it – because it wasn’t that big – but I remembered my coordination, or I should say, lack thereof. I could just picture myself stumbling, twisting my ankle on the rock, falling down, dropping my new phone, smashing it into a million pieces, and then being stuck in the rain.

As I side-stepped the rock, I realized it wasn’t a rock at all. It was a very tiny bird. Now I really don’t know much about birds except they fly and occasionally leave unwelcome deposits on my not-so-freshly-washed car. I have no idea what kind of little bird this was, but I knew he was way too little to be sitting on the road, very far from a nest he should have been safely tucked inside.

I walked my mile and by the time I came back around to him, I noticed he may not have been able to fly, but he was quite a walker. He was several feet away from where he’d been the last time. I squatted down beside him to take a closer look and found that his tiny little body was shaking all over. He kept a very close eye on me with that “I’m trying to be brave and not let you scare me” look, but the shaking negated the look. He was so little that I could still see bits of down in the brand new feathers.

After another mile, I found myself pretty worried about this little bird. His Mama was clearly nowhere around or she’d have let me know I was too close when I took the look earlier. It was going to rain, it was hot, he was probably hungry, and all he could see was this big old stretch of paved road. I met a biker coming toward me and panicked that she might have made the same mistake I made in thinking he was a rock and might have smashed him with her front tire.

Where would he go? Where would he sleep? How would he eat? This was a lot of worry to put into a bird smaller than my phone.

And that was when my lesson kicked in. I started thinking about that old hymn His Eye is on the Sparrow. I had no way of knowing if this was a sparrow or a crow or an eagle or what, but I still got the point. In the grand scheme of my world, that bird really didn’t matter much. I would go home to my house and do my chores and get up the next morning and go to my job and do all the things that were important, but I still took a minute to worry about a baby bird lost from his nest. If I’m going to pay that much attention to the little guy, what makes me think that God is going to pay any less attention to me? I’m about that big – okay, much smaller – next to Him, but He still cares!

When my exercise was complete, I went home (beat the rain, thankyouverymuch) and grabbed my camera. I drove back to the spot where I thought I should find the little bird, and sure enough, there he was, just a few feet away, continuing his careful trek by the curb (which was about five times taller than his tiny body). I took a few pictures just to remind myself that “His eye is on the little guy…and I know He watches me.”

The next day, I approached my walking path with some apprehension, wondering if I’d find a smashed bird or a drowned bird or a baked bird…but I didn’t see one sign of him along the entire road. I have no idea where the little guy went. But wherever he is, whatever happened to him, I know it was not unseen by the Eye of God, and I was reminded again to just be very still. God cared more about that bird that I did (so He must have really liked him!) and therefore – even more about you and me!