[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, August 9, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all on this Friday afternoon, at least it's afternoon as I write this here in Baltimore MD USA.  It might be evening where you are or, if you live in Australia or New Zealand, it's early Saturday morning.  Whatever time of day it is or day of the week, I pray that your day is going well, went well or about to begin.

Martha Fehl is a writer from the midwestern state of Indiana, and she write today about a pair of barn swallows and their brood in her article entitled "The Persistent Pair," rendered as follows:

Each spring we welcome the return of warm-weather birds to our backyard.  Their diligence in pursuing the mission of building anew their nests and nurturing their fledglings is encouraging.  But when a pair of barn swallows chose our garage close to the kitchen door, I was not happy.

After years of secondhand cars, I was thrilled that I had been able to use my salary to purchase a small, new car that was now parked in the garage beneath that chosen resting spot.  And that troubled me.  I worried about the swallows punctuating its shiny exterior with blobs of mud and other unfavorable material.

Logic assured me I was bigger, stronger and hopefully wiser and could outsmart this loving pair.  But I was not prepared for the diligence and devotion they brought to their task.  Hourly flights brought sticks and soil that they carefully welded to the opening of the attic.  Even when I tried to discourage them by closing the doors, they still managed to get through.

In the beginning I tried knocking the small structure away, until my husband told me a sad story of how the male had wooed his bride and convinced her that this was the perfect spot in which to raise a family.  He further stated that I was thwarting the progress of nature in my attempts.  "Maybe our Creator told them this was a great place for a nest," he said, smiling.

Defeated, I began to weaken.  I started placing a sheet over the car each time it resided in the garage and removing it again when I drove it.  This became my new routine.

Soon there were five fuzzy creatures sticking their heads from the top of the nest.  The parents worked feverishly in the hot, dry weeks that followed to supply their hungry brood with water and food.  Always, it seemed, one remained perched on the wire outside the garage door while the other searched for food and fed the young ones inside.  They only tolerated our presence and would often try to dive-bomb our coming and going.  We became the visitors, and they the owners.

July was an exceptionally dry month, but the couple persisted in feeding their young.  One day we noticed a tiny bird lying on the concrete floor under the nest.  After a few days, another appeared until only three lifeless and dehydrated forms remained.

The parents sat above on the outside wire often in the days that followed as if expecting their brood to emerge as full-feathered adults.  I watched as they looked back and forth at each other and then peered toward the back of the garage.

After about a week of guarding their territory, they abandoned the nest.  We felt remorse at their persistence and the fact that it was never fulfilled.  God created all the animals two by two in the beginning, including humans.  Sometimes we forget that we are not the only ones who struggle.

That summer I developed a new respect for creatures both large and small.  The diligence represented by that pair of swallows taught me something about patience.  It also gave me hope.  Humbled by their plight, I willingly offered my new car as a sacrifice to any future families with a brood in mind.

And there you have it for today, and I hope that, in some small way, the Lord ministered to you through Martha's words.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul