The Little Robin

Working from home has brought me the opportunity to increase my appreciation of my home and nature around. Every year a pair of robins tries to build a nest above my front door. Normally we keep cleaning it off and work hard to keep that nest from forming above the door, but this year I decided to let them construct their nursery. Everyone was excited when four little blue eggs were added to the nest and we all watched eagerly, waiting daily for the eggs to hatch.

Then one day, we saw one of the robins bending down and sure enough, four little birds were in the nest. They were so small that their beaks did not even reach the top of the nest when they opened their mouth for their parents to feed them. Day by day they grew until we looked yesterday, and it almost looked like four grown robins in the nest. They started bantering for spots and occasionally moved (or were pushed) out on to the window ledge. It seemed like overnight the birds had grown from helpless to ready to leave.

Being the overzealous researcher that I am, I researched and found out that robins mature to leave the nest in 13 days. I learned that these fledglings will flutter down to the ground and the parents will help them to a safe location. The father bird then feeds them and teaches them to fly for 14 more days before they then are on their own. During this time, mama bird will start a new nest and sit on more eggs, timed perfect for dad to join back in the feeding job when they hatch, and the first batch is off on their own.

This all seems easy and simple, but it was today that really fascinated me in the process. This morning when I started work at 7am, I heard some pecking on the window and noises. Having an immediate phone call, I took a while to be able to go and check what was happening. It was then that I notice only one bird left on the ledge. This little bird sat chirping loudly outside the nest on the ledge. Apparently, the other birds had followed their parents and left the nest, but this little stubborn bird refused to take its first flight. It was meant to fly but all day long it refused to take the first step to do what God had programmed it to do: Fly.

All-day long I listed to the peep, chirp, peep. Repeatedly the little bird let out a cry.  I could hear the other birds calling back to it and every once and a while I saw the papa bird bring it a worm. And yet with all the encouragement, this little bird refused to fly, paralyzed by the fear of what lay ahead of it.

This little bird made me thing about Matthew 6:25:34. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” God created these little birds and had a plan for them, but this little bird was too afraid to do what it was meant to do. How often do I find myself paralyzed or afraid to take the next step that God is calling me to? So many times, in the last year, as I sit here and reflect, I can think of all the times I contemplated the next step or what choice I should make. Sometimes unwilling to just leap forward and follow God into the unknown.

And the hours of joy that I lost worrying and fretting about the future instead of focusing on what is eternal. I think about how I worried that my trip to the Netherlands would interfere with some changes I wanted to make, yet in the end, COVID-19 took away the trip and the changes never happened. All that time I spent worrying instead of trusting God with his plan.

Matthew finishes with Christ telling us, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

The little bird on the ledge today was a good reminder that if I have my eyes towards heaven and I am focusing on God, I will find the joy in all things. So that I can be like Paul and say, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” I did not see the little bird take flight, but while I prepared dinner, the little bird took off moving to its next step in growing up. Leaving me with an important reminder to continue to trust God in the big things and in the little things; in the calm and in the storm; looking to Him for my comfort and joy.