A Labyrinthine Journey

This summer we put a bird feeder up in our wildflower garden. Our cat just loves it, she spends a lot of time sitting in the window watching all those birds come and go. Sometimes she is kind enough to tell us there are some delicious … um, I mean, interesting … birds out there.

Every once in a while I am sitting there watching with her and I find myself thinking, “Oh, it’s just a bunch of sparrows out there. Nothing too interesting.” It is hard to get excited about the small, ordinary birds that are all around anyway. But lately I have been convicted that there is something awry with that attitude.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts … Even the sparrow finds a home, … at your altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.—Psalm 84:1,3

To God, there is no such thing as “just a bunch of sparrows.” God’s loving presence is such that all creatures, no matter how small or common or ordinary they are find a place in God’s compassion.

Sometimes it is easy to focus so much on our own smallness that we are tempted to forget that. We look at the big cities or the mega-churches, or even just the bigger church across that county and think that God is present there, but of course God would be, they are bigger and flashier and have more exciting things going on. The problem is the flip thought is that somehow God is less present with us in our small town with our limited resources and just our regular, ordinariness.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight…. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. —Luke 12:6-7

Cast those thoughts away. God is fully present with us here in our homes and our congregation, just as much as fully present in the big cities and tall steeples. Sure, I may seem to be “just a sparrow,” but to God there is a place at the altar for my home. To God there is a place in my heart for the fullness of Grace and Spirit.

Don’t even get me started on a faith the size of mustard seed.

Your Fellow Sparrow.

David