Baby Bird

Everything about this Wednesday afternoon was normal. We played games at kids' club as normal. We sweat in the heat as normal. I saw my normal kids and was going about my normal routine. But something within me was not normal. I had a burden on my shoulders, and I knew why to a certain degree, but there was also an aspect of this weigh that I couldn't understand. It was as if I was carrying something partially unknown. Something was making me feel heavy, but I didn't know what. 

That's when a little boy pulled on my shirt. "Tantie Ashli," he said, and I looked down to see him holding a carefully crafted birds nest. He reached his hand inside and pulled out a tiny baby bird, all black with beady little eyes. 

A smile spread across my face and I held out both hands as he delicately placed the little bird inside my cupped palms. "It's a gift for you," he said, and my heart melted. 

Because I knew it wasn't simply a gift from him. Someone much greater had seen me and sent a reminder my way. My mind immediately remembered Matthew 6:26. 

"Look at the birds of the air. They neither labor nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" 

Jesus also said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." 

My burdens - known and unknown - were lifted. For God has provided us a nest in his love, and if he sees and provides for the baby birds, how much more will he watch over and satisfy us. 

I took the little baby bird home and the kids helped me grind rice to feed it. When I dipped my finger in water, it would lick the drops of water off the end of my finger to drink. It would chirp and sing in the house in the place where we designated as its corner. 

"What should we name it?" I asked the kids, and the oldest suggested Grace. "It's by God's grace he was found and it's by God's grace that he will grow," she explained. I liked that. Just another reminder of what God must be trying to teach me about his grace for us, too.