Tag: birds

THIS ONE’S FOR THE BIRDS…..AND OTHERS

george gaffga2 Comments

As I have written, my wife loves birds and cares immensely for the little ones. But there is one thing that she doesn’t do. She does not let the birds into our house. 

I recall Ed and Marie, members of a church I once pastored. They let birds into their home. They loved birds. They rescued birds. People brought them wounded birds. The first time I visited them I noticed all their furniture was covered with plastic. Birds were flying around the house. These weren’t just parakeets. There was even a seagull in the mix. They were pooping all over the place. I chose my seat carefully and tried not to breathe in too deeply. Some would say that Ed and Marie were not living in healthy conditions but they loved the birds. They didn’t have children and needless to say, they didn’t have many visitors. But I loved them for their concern, and yes, visited again.

We read in Psalm 84 that in God’s house, his Temple, even the ‘sparrows found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young- a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.’ (Verse 3 NIV)

The Apostle Paul wrote that we are the Temple of God’s Spirit- it’s where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live. So am I the place that welcomes others in Christ’s name? Is my life that place?  Together we are to be a sacred place for all people. Jesus said that God’s house is a place for prayer for all people. It’s within that sacred space of our hearts and minds that others find God and love and acceptance. But I confess that my heart is not always a place for all people. There are some I let in and others I keep out. Some say it’s good to have boundaries so that you don’t have poop all over your house but what I have done is build a moat to keep others’ kingdoms from encroaching upon mine.

I know who the people are in my life that are ‘outside’ and just maybe by the grace of God someday I will put in a bridge with a welcome sign on my little door. We’ll see. I just don’t want to have to cover the place in plastic. May God rest the precious souls of Marie and Ed and all their little bird friends.

NEVER APART FROM OUR HEAVENLY FATHER

george gaffga2 Comments

My wife loves to sit at our kitchen table and watch the birds bathe, eat, feed their young, and flit from tree to bush to the sky as they delight in their lives. And sometimes they have been observed ‘meeting their maker’.

It put me in mind of words from Jesus to the disciples as he assured them of God’s care for each of their lives:

“29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10 (ESV)

The point is that God does not send these little creatures spiraling to the earth any more than he purposely would send us into harm’s way. Rather, we are told time and time again as the old song goes, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” God is in all the details, circumstances, coincidences, joys, and sorrows of our lives.

We are NEVER outside of God’s loving care. As the Apostle Paul once said, ‘In Him, we live and move and have our being.’ Acts 17 When you or I see suffering in this life and care so deeply about what happens to soldiers in war, shooting victims and their families, helpless children, the sick, the homeless … please know that our Father cares more than we do and his heart breaks more than ours. And God will act, is acting, through any possible means, to bring his love to bear in the form of healing, justice, and redemption.

In the meantime, we wait and keep faith knowing that there is not a moment when we are outside the life and love of our heavenly Father. That truth revealed through the Bible gives us the mission to live this life as the agents, the missionaries of God’s love to a hurting world until the Kingdom comes in all its fullness.