Bitty Bird

The person who owned the house before my husband spent lots of time and money carefully placing pavers throughout the entire back yard...

...and I've taken on the task of removing them all one by one, with a shovel, and stacking them in nice neat piles in the corner of the yard.

While I was working, I came across a tiny little bird. It wasn't quite a baby, maybe a toddler. But, I'd never seen a bird that small in real life. Seriously. Infer what you will, I don't really know how it's possible either. (My husband just read this and informed me he was full grown. That's just the type of bird he was. Who knew?)

Probably because it was so small and let me get so close to it, I was immediately taken by him (I'm guessing it was a him because he was so pretty). Anyway, he really did let me get very close. He would hop around, and even fly occasionally, but for the most part he just hung out there near me most of the morning. We looked at him pretty closely, wondering if he was hurt or something was wrong. My husband crouched down and peered into his face, and said that his eyes looked a little funny, like maybe he really wanted to fall asleep. Also, he was breathing kind of heavy, but he seemed OK. We called him "bitty bird."

By the time we were going into eat lunch, I had removed half of the pavers from underneath the wood trellis, and bitty bird had found a little spot in the dirt on the other side where he rested his little head down into his body and went to sleep.

I came back out an hour later, and sure enough, bitty bird was still in the same spot. But as I got closer I realized that he was no longer sleeping, but had fallen over on his side, and had gently slipped out of birdie sleep and into birdie heaven.

I had tears in my eyes when I went to go tell my husband. He confirmed it, and we dug a little hole for the birdie burial.

Why cry over a bird? Because life is precious and intrinsically we all know that. Death isn't cool. Because we weren't meant for death, but for life - abundant life. Everlasting life.

"Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's consent. But even the hairs on your head have all been counted. Don't be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows."     Matthew 10:29-31

oops - sideways video