Today’s find: Sparrows

Today’s find: Sparrows…

Yesterday was ‘laundry day’ at our house, and in the late winter months, that means adding an extra step to the dreary routine. Along with sorting, soaping and spin drying, I also have to make a short trip outside—trudging through the snow and mud to remove the duct tape from the dryer vent opening on the exterior of our home.

You see, there’s this sparrow who thinks the dryer vent hose would make a DANDY place for a nest. And since sparrow nests and hot air don’t mix, something’s gotta give. So as soon as I hear the tell-tale scritching in the laundry room each February, I seal the opening as best I can, to encourage the bird to build elsewhere. (Is it the same sparrow year after year? Possibly, but not likely. Wild sparrows typically live for just three years or so – and this little duct-tape dance of ours has been going on for a decade or more. Who knows? Maybe they pass along my address from generation to generation…or perhaps there’s a ‘sparrow time-share’ website that all the little birdies are connected to.)

Now I can’t honestly say that I enjoy this whole bird-prevention process. Truth be told, it’s kind of a pain in the kiester. But this morning, I happened across the words of Psalm 84 during my morning prayer:

My soul is longing and yearning for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and flesh cry out to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself in which she sets her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.

So, yes, I had to pause for a moment and confess that my life has blessed by sparrows, by the prodigal beauty of nature—and by the way God seems to provide for even his most insignificant creatures.

As I read on in Psalm 84, I also noticed something else that seemed significant:

Blessed the people whose strength is in you,

Whose heart is set on pilgrim ways.

That word ‘pilgrim’ bears more reflection, it seems to me. It’s clearly a part of what God calls us to be – people of the Way, always on a journey. How often do I short-circuit that instinct in my own life, by clinging to possessions…or preferring the established habits and patterns in my life?

I’ve already turned one family of sparrows into pilgrims this spring. Perhaps – through the words of Psalm 84 – I’m being given a chance to follow their lead.

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