Never Forsaken

You can probably just make them out in the center of the picture.  That bit of yellow is a tiny beak and there are three more in that nest.  They are nestled in the middle of one of our flourishing rose bushes at the back of the house.  My wife found them the other day while she was doing some pruning to clip off what the dreaded Japanese Beetles had devoured.  And, as she cut away stems, she uncovered four beaks open and arching toward the sound she made, thinking they were going to get fed.

I've been out to check on them a few times.  I have no idea what kind of bird they are.  I saw the mother bird as she flitted away and perched on a nearby fence.  I had seen her before and thought she was a Killdeer ... but they lay their eggs on the ground.  It may have curtailed the pruning on that bush (Sharon put back some of the clippings to give them a little cover), but it also made me think about a principal that I often take for granted.

Had the trimming gone a little further, there could have easily been contact with the nest or even the baby birds.  Even though there were gloves involved, that contact could have altered the situation to the point where the mother, dutiful as she might be, would forsake the nest and I, at some point, would have to remove it all with the lifeless forms still there in their pin feathers.  Happily, that isn't the case as the mother has been spotted numerous times and we'll now leave it alone (except for a few more pictures and careful observation).  That's the way nature works ... birds will forsake a nest regardless of the work they put into it and the fact that the baby birds are their own offspring.  Contact leads to contamination and that results in abandonment.

God, on the other hand, has given us a promise to never leave us or forsake us.  And he makes this promise unilaterally without any regard for whatever might come in contact with us and attempt to "contaminate" our lives.  His Fatherhood and Love know no boundaries in their pursuit of us.  Our nest will never be abandoned ... we have his word on that.  So when I consider the birds in my yard (who will only be there for a couple weeks) and how they might have been orphaned and met an untimely end, I can also consider that God is completely faithful to his promise and I will never meet the same fate.  I will never be forsaken.

The Crooked Path is unpredictable as it winds through life.  I often have no idea what I will come in contact with or what will come in contact with me.  But I don't ever need to worry that my Father will leave me to my own devices.  He has promised to be right there, even in the darkest point of the journey.  He has promised I will never be forsaken.  Never.