Lessons from a Mother Bird!

One day after parking our car in our garage, I took the stairs to get to the side door.There’s a little tree by our staircase, so I just glanced at it while climbing upstairs.

I was startled to see a female Cardinal bird sitting in a little nest on our frail little tree. Cardinal birds are extremely sensitive to movement. At the slightest movement of a human even several feet away, they immediately fly away.

This is what a male and female cardinal bird looks like:

1. Her Undeterred posture:

This Mother bird was so near that I could have reached out to her and easily caught her. Yet, she did not BUDGE from her position. I immediately knew she had eggs in her nest. I took out my phone to capture a quick shot. Even then, she never moved! She was absolutely undeterred!!! Nothing could move her from her position!!!

#1 If only we, as God’s children had the determination of that mother bird to wait on the promises of God, taking on the posture of Prayer!!!

2. No Orange Yet:

After that day, Enakkum Jeevukkum from morning till the sun sets, velaiyeee is to check on the mother bird and its nest!!! One day, to my utter surprise the mother bird wasn’t there. Jeev and I were extremely worried thinking she flew away for good, coz until then, we never saw a single day when she wasn’t in her nest. But, not before too long, the mother bird returned to take her position again.

2-3 days later, the eggs hatched!!!! Our Joy knew no bounds!!!! We were delighted, perhaps more than the mother bird itself!!! I kept taking videos at every possible instance. I was hoping to see beautiful orange baby birds!!!! But boy!!! They were brown!!! N’ didn’t look anything like a Cardinal birdie!!! Cardinal birds are a beautiful bright orange and black birds. Gorgeous colors they’ve got. I quickly realized that they are born brown and as they grow is when they get their colors on their feathers!!!

#2 Our situations and circumstances that may seem out of shape today, will slowly gather color as years roll by and by the gracious hand of God, turn into something beautiful which at one point almost seemed impossible!!! The same hand of God which gives color to the Cardinal is the same hand that will fashion and shape our families too!!! Hang in there!!

3. The Storm:

After the baby birds were born, one evening while we were sitting on the deck, it suddenly got dark and started drizzling. The worst part of it were the winds. It started getting pretty windy and we began to get scared for the baby birds. As always, Jeev wanted to do SOMETHING to make sure the birds would be okay. We came up with a couple of ideas, but since it started raining pretty heavily, we decided we won’t be able to do much. Jeev just moved some chairs beneath the tree to make sure the baby birds don’t get hurt, even if the nest fell from the tree due to the winds. We went inside, closed our sliding door whispering a simple prayer. “Lord, keep the birdies safe.”

If you had seen the branch on which the nest sat, I don’t think you would have had the slightest faith that the nest would be safe. I mean the branch was so thin… 1/3 the thickness of my little finger! Absolutely the flimsiest branch ever! But at this point, nothing could be done, so I told Jeev to just trust God and wait it out.

The next morning needless to say, as soon as I got out of bed I dashed to the tree and was astonished to see the nest safe and the birds secure.

#3 It was then that I realized that the birds didn’t actually build its nest on a flimsy branch but built it on strong hands – the hands of the Maker himself!! If you actually look at the branch from an angle, it actually does appear to be like hands holding the nest!!! Well, the birds and animals know better, is all I could say to myself!!!

After a couple of days, the fellows had now opened their eyes and began gaining strength!!!! One of the fellows stood on top of the nest, but the other fell down!! Jeev picked it up and we tried putting it back on the tree!! But I think, the mother bird had enough of the two intruders!!! She took her birds and flew away!!!

I miss seeing the baby birdies… in just over two weeks, they had almost become my own!! With longing eyes every now and then I look at the trees around me to see if they are there. Jeev does the same too, with hopes that someday they will come back to the tree where their life through the storms, began.

Mother Bird in her nest: