His Eye is On the Sparrow

Every year we have a little family of sparrows that nests in a hanging basket on our back porch. It's really fun, and I've wondered if it's the same family group year after year? I should do some research on that...

It always happens like this: Lush, beautiful ferns go on sale, and I buy 2 immediately. I hang them on the back porch - taa daa! I'm ready for spring. Then, a few days later, it freezes. And I forget about the ferns. I bring them in too late, and the damage is already done. I hang them back out, hoping that I can revive them, but no. I finally decide to throw them away and start over, and when I take them down there is a nest in one. So, of course, I cannot replace that plant! I carefully try to keep it watered and leave the nest alone, meanwhile the plant itself dies a slow pitiful death. Well, this year I decided to "mask" the nest-bearing plant, because it is in the worst shape of all of them thus far. I bought 2 more ferns, and hung one in front of the nest-bearing plant on the same hook. Out my kitchen window, I can see mama bird sitting on top of her nest, and the pretty plant hanging on the other side gives her a prettier backdrop than the dead plant she's in.

Last night I brought in the pretty, green, living, ferns because it was supposed to freeze. OH, it was so so hard to leave the dead plant with the baby birds outside! They hatched a few days ago, and I was so worried about them in the cold. But there was nothing I could do... if I brought them in, the mama would be worried sick. Where would she go all night? She might even reject them when I put them back out in the morning if she didn't die of a heart attack in the night (I don't know if birds do that, but my own mind gives them human thoughts & emotions). Through the night the pathetic little plant hung there, and mama & babies kept each other warm. This morning, after she left to find food, I took a peek just to make sure they were okay, and a little eye peeked back at me!

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matthew 6:25-26 (ESV)

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