A Lesson from a Bird’s Nest

Written by Mike Lawing

Several weeks ago I stopped by my parent’s home, unannounced, for a quick visit.

I found my mom sitting in her den looking out the glass doors onto her patio at what seemed to be one of her unfinished projects for the day…pulling dead and weakened blooms off her geraniums. Flower pieces, shreds of leaves, and even dirt clods, were laying all around the pot closest to the door. That wasn’t her usual tidy method of flower care. Then I noticed, among the plant parts, some broken eggs…obviously little bird eggs.  I looked at her and asked about the scene and this is what she shared with me…

“That geranium plant, one of the prettiest I’ve ever grown, has had a bird’s nest in it.  I’ve been watching the mother bird prepare that nest for many days.  In fact, I tried to dissuade her from using my geranium plant as the place to build her home. I destroyed it more than once hoping she would go somewhere else but she was persistent and I finally gave in and just let her have it. For the past few days now, I’ve been watching her take care of her little eggs and soon to be babies.”

I interrupted her and said, “Mother…please tell me you didn’t tear that nest out of the plant with eggs in it!” (I felt sure she hadn’t but I had to question the destruction in front of me.)

“Of course not,” she replied. “The neighbor’s cat that hangs around our house got up into my geranium plant this morning, destroyed the nest, and ate the baby birds.”

About that time (no kidding!) the not-so-friendly feline walked along the edge of the patio and spread himself right out in the sun.

“Look at him,” my mom said, “he has no idea what he’s done and feels no guilt for killing those baby birds. And, I’ve just been sitting here thinking about all this and relating it to sin. You know, he’ll never know what destruction he caused, and his cat life will go on as usual. His life is like our own human lives without Christ. Our lives would be consumed, wrecked, and destroyed by our sinful ways…without remorse. But we, as followers of Christ and having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, know the difference between right and wrong. How thankful we should be to have the love of God and the gift of Christ to keep us from the mess of sin in our lives.”

With that, she stopped and continued to ponder the destroyed flower pot and bird’s nest just outside the door.  Well, I had come for a quick visit and cup of coffee but got a full-fledged Bible message. It’s kind of cool when that happens, huh?

I’ll fondly remember that little devotional moment with my mom. Several times since that morning the thought struck me of just how simple the Gospel message is and how difficult we try to make it. The love of Christ and the greatness of that love is right in front of us if we’ll just take time to see it and accept it. He reminds us daily, just as He did my mom through the destroyed bird nest incident, that He loves us and wants us to be consumed in His love which includes His forgiveness of our sins.

While growing up, and even now, my mom has verbalized to my sister and I, “Be sure, your sins will find you out.” And, yes mom, I’m listening.

Romans 6:23… “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”