Sharon Kinsey's Blog
Early in April, I put up our spring wreath on the front door. It was such a pretty harbinger of things to come – pale pink, lavender, and blue silk flowers intertwined among the grape vine. A perfect way to welcome visitors. About a week later, I was driving in front of the house, and I noticed that 3 or 4 of those delicate flowers were missing from the top of the wreath. Perhaps the wind had blown them off. But the following day, Jack asked me to come out to the front porch. It was literally covered with small branches, string, and twigs. At the same time, our doorbell monitor started chiming throughout the day. Was it Amazon or UPS? By now, you’ve probably figured out that a mother robin had crafted a fine nest among the vines of the wreath, and was now in “hatching mode”, sitting on three little blue eggs.
This is not the first time we’ve experienced the blessing of seeing new life happen on our front door. It is always a wonder, and we look forward to those fuzzy little heads and soft chirps that will signal the arrival of the babies. Next, we will eagerly anticipate watching those babies fledge under their mother’s watchful eye. Then, the wreath will come down, and we’ll put up something that feels summer-y.
Birds have always been used as powerful symbols in religion. Birds such as the dove, sparrow, eagle, and robin might represent our noble best. Their stories and metaphors touch our hearts. Other birds in the Bible touch on some darker aspects of our lives that we really don’t like to look at. So the birds of the Bile represent both our good traits and sinful ones. And Jesus teaches us to “look at the birds in the sky”, saying that they are “much like me.”
Birds appear about 300 times in the Bible. The dove represents the Holy Spirit, and qualities like peace and purity. The eagle is bold, strong, brave, and courageous. And of course, the sparrow is presented as something that perhaps isn’t worth much, but something that God loves very much. I encourage you to read through some of the verses that speak to the place that birds have in God’s good creation:
Matthew 10: 29-31
Luke 9:58
Isaiah 40:3
Terry Williams is a writer and environmental activist. As I was preparing this piece, one of her quotes popped up on my Facebook account. It was very meaningful to me, and I’d love to share it!
Once upon a time…there was
the simple understanding that
to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk
was to heal the world through joy.
The birds still remember
what we have forgotten,
that the world is meant to be celebrated…
And now that I’ve finished writing, I think I’ll sneak out to the front porch to see if the miracle of life has taken place. God is good, indeed!
