God cares for every sparrow (and nuthatch)
/A bird (a nuthatch) crashed into a window of our house and didn’t fly away. I went out to investigate—it had grabbed onto a bush as it fell and was hanging upside down. I was afraid and wasn’t sure what to do, or even if it was alive. But I couldn’t just leave it, so I got a towel and picked it up. (Once I picked it up, it was clear it wasn’t dead.)
I sat down and talked to the bird, reciting “Christ My Refuge” and the 91st and 23rd psalms. I told it that it was God’s perfect bird and that God was its Father-Mother. I said that I knew that bird parents don’t stick around very long, but that God was always with it and would never leave it or allow harm to come to it. It was interesting to watch the bird, because there were a few points where it was clearly listening to what I was saying.
I was also resisting the thought that these things happen in nature and that’s just the way the natural world works because that’s NOT true. The truth is that God is omnipotent, and He has care and love for every sparrow.
And the bird slowly got better. In the beginning it was quivering and panting with pain. Then it calmed down and got more alert, started to quirk its head around the way they do, and eventually flew away.
This healing made me feel for the first time that maybe I would be OK with being a parent. Previously the idea of having to pray for a child seemed daunting/frightening, but this made me see that it’s all in God’s hands, and not impossible or out of my reach.