Key verse from today's reading: Psalm 84:3, "Yes, the sparrow too has found a home there; the swallow has found herself a nest where she can lay her young beside your altars, LORD of heavenly forces, my king, my God!"
Theology is for the birds.
Evidently, according to the Psalmist in today's reading. How many times are birds mentioned in the scriptures? Jesus mentions that God knows when each sparrow falls to the ground to share with us how we are noticed even more than they are. Jesus even compares God's love to a mother hen. In one of my favorite stories, God uses ravens to feed the prophet Elijah. It's almost as good a story as Elisha and the she bears which is about bears not birds but I know some of you will remember it fondly.
It lay there peeping, pitifully, as only a baby bird can do.
I inched closer and closer to see it but the mother was circling. It began to dive bomb me and peck my head as I ran back to the house hollering bloody murder!
After getting the appropriate consolation from my mother, I reflected that birds were dangerous nuisances.
As I grew older, I had more benevolent experiences of baby birds that we rescued. These didn't have angry mother birds circling them. I began to think more kindly upon our feathered friends.
It's amazing that birds have the capacity to care and protect in this way. The birds praise the LORD in their own way according to our Psalm. Is their fierce protection a kind of love? Who am I to say that they have less capacity for it than I do. We can at least admire it.
The three readings from today's common lectionary reflect upon the holiness of God. Maybe my own holiness comes through in my own raw love and protection that I have for my children.
What if we could extend that kind of love to others? Is this what God asks of us?
Breath prayer for today: Mother Hen, enfold me in your arms.
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