But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8
I had to look twice. The other morning my wife Judy and I were sitting on our patio chatting, drinking coffee, and enjoying the morning. It is one of those things you can do when you are retired. Just a few feet away from the patio is a bird feeder. It is a poplar stopping off point for quite a variety of birds and we enjoy listening to them sing and watching them have breakfast. As I was watching that morning, a bird, somewhat larger than the rest pulled up and parked in the bush in my neighbor’s yard. Besides his size, I could tell that he was a little bit different than the rest. He seemed to have a difficult time balancing on the limb and he was constantly fluttering and fluffing his feathers. I figured out that either something was not quite right with him, or he was a very young bird. It turned out to be number two.
Before long, he fluttered to the ground, half landing and half crashing, right beneath the bird feeder. While there were several birds on the ground, all much smaller than him, one particular sparrow played close attention to him. What happened next was amazing. The large, not quite grown up half chick would occasionally flutter his feathers and I noticed it happen to happen when this little sparrow was nearby. He fluttered and then he opened his mouth much like a baby chick in a nest. To my amazement, the little sparrow picked up a seed from the ground and hopped over and fed the big, fat chick.
At first, I thought it was some sort of coincidence, but it wasn’t. Time and again, he would flutter, open his mouth and the sparrow would feed him. Well, I was just amazed so I had to find out what was going on. It turned out that the big, fat chick was in fact a baby cowbird and the sparrow was…well, an adopted momma sparrow. As I read about the cowbird, it turns out the Momma cowbird, when she is ready to lay her eggs, doesn’t build a nest. The cowbird is a brood parasite, meaning that it lays its eggs in nests of other species. A female cowbird quietly searches for female birds of other species that are actively laying eggs.
Once she has found a suitable host, the cowbird will sneak onto the resident bird’s nest when it is away, usually damaging or removing one (or more) eggs and replacing that egg with one (or more) of her own. The foster parents then unknowingly raise the young cowbirds, usually at the expense of their own offspring. And here’s the great mystery, the other mother would come back and for whatever reason “adopt” the new eggs as her eggs and raise them as her own. Even though the eggs were different sizes and colors didn’t seem to matter. And wait for this, even when the eggs hatched and it was obvious that the chicks didn’t belong to her, she still cared for them and raised them. I know…it makes no sense. The obvious didn’t change her caring for the one or ones who didn’t belong. Amazing.
Do you want to hear something even more amazing? What about a God who willingly cares for a creation that clearly doesn’t deserve to be cared for? What about a God who loves the most unloving and despite the obvious fact this creation is so much unlike Him and yet He cares? What about that. Well, that is Gospel story. God, even though we totally did not deserve it, sent His Son to die so we could live—so we could be part of His family. Now that is a mystery, but it is a mystery I love. It seemed crazy that the sparrow raised and cared for the big, fat chick but this crazy love of God for us is even more amazing.
If you find yourself abandoned and alone in this big old crazy world, just remember there is Father who wants to adopt you into His family like that sparrow, only better, He will never leave you or forsake you. Don’t you worry—He’s got this. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 