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)

Old Things New

A few years ago, we had one of Sr. Smith's (aka Batman's) co-workers & his family over for dinner. Pablo (the friend) gave me a compliment that I just loved the wording of, "You have lots of cool old stuff in your house!" And I appreciated it because I do truly love old stuff - especially if it once belonged to someone I love, or if it connects us to a family member that we never knew but know we would have loved had we had the chance. Like my engagement ring, for instance. It belonged to Sr. Smith's maternal grandmother. I never knew her, but wearing her ring makes me feel like I belong in her family. And this wash stand in the picture above was Pig's. She gave it to me in high school, and it was painted green then. Sr. Smith refinished it for me during our engagement (it gave him something to do - haha!), and now it is in the entry of our home topped with a doilie passed down from my great aunt Nora, an assortment of nature items, a couple of vases, and a new guest book that we recently started keeping (thanks for that idea, Javamom!). But old things also remind me not to be too connected to my "stuff". They remind me how quickly life on earth passes, and how this world will eventually pass away...

Now on to some of my old things...

I have to comment on these nature items... the pressed flowers sitting on this plate are 14 years old. Last week I dug out my old leaf/flower press that I made in graduate school the summer I got married. I was taking a Science in the Elementary School class, and our class made presses & then went out on a nature walk to collect items to press. Jirafa is taking Botany this year, so I pulled out the press for him. When we opened it, I couldn't believe my eyes - it was full of flowers! I picked a few for our nature display, and let him have the rest for his Botany book cover. Very cool.

The final picture here is a little basket of wildlife nests we've found along the way. A wasp nest from Brambleside last summer, a dirt dobber nest from our neighbor, and the last 2 sparrow nests from my hanging plants on the back porch. The other day Paco & I did our outdoor "Autumn cleaning" which included retrieving the last nest. The birds had found some great soft lining this year! I carefully removed it from the plant, and Paco (ever the observant) said, "Look! There's something down there" pointing down in the leaves. Well, sure enough, 3 little eggs had been kicked out of the nest and were sitting whole down below where the nest had been. So we have included them in our display as well.

"You turn winter into spring

You take every living thing

And You breathe Your breath of life into it over and over again

You made the sunrise, day after day after day

But there's a morning coming, when old things will all pass away

And everyone will see You make all things new"

- from "All Things New" by Stephen Curtis Chapman

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17