His Eye is on the Robin

I headed out my back door yesterday to check on my garden and my eyes were immediately drawn to a baby robin, perched on my pot of basil herbs.  Its fuzzy little head darted from side to side, and it tried to unfurl immature little wings, but was unable to fly. I surmised it must have fallen out of a nearby nest and hopped its way up to my deck.  I decided to go back inside and keep watch over it for a while to see what would happen. I had just received a text on my phone from the National Weather Service, warning of a severe thunderstorm headed our way.

Baby bird...so small, so innocent, so vulnerable.  Something deep inside of me started to resonate with it. These times we are living in sometimes make me feel small and vulnerable too.

Suddenly the wind kicked up fiercely and I was so worried about this little creature clinging to the edge of my basil pot. Wind gusts reached 65 miles per hour and then the rain began to pour. I watched through the window. Baby bird clung tight, stretched its tiny neck way back, and fixed its fuzzy little face upward.  Limbs began to snap off the surrounding trees and came hurling into our back yard like javelins.  A huge, gnarled old tree a block behind us was uprooted by this strong gale and crashed into the house, demolishing the garage. Baby bird clung to the edge of the basil pot, pelted with rain, rocked by wind, little face turned upward. 

Through all of this I was praying for him - and as I prayed, a song began to fill my heart: "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me."  The whole picture was almost surreal; I knew Abba Father was illustrating something for me in a very real way.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that baby bird but it did not fall!  You know the rest of Matthew 7:25; the house does not fall because its foundation is on the Rock (Yeshua).  Maybe the baby bird did not fall because I was praying for its protection.  Or MAYBE it was just because His eye IS on all His creatures and also all His children!

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The storm blew out as quickly as it had blown in.  I thought perhaps I might be able to sneak past the tiny bird and look for a worm in my garden soil. I found one and brought it back up to him. He stayed right where he was, and I held the worm right over his little beak but he didn't open his mouth.  I wondered if he was abandoned now, orphaned by his parents. I went back inside the house and continued to keep watch through the curtain.  Then I heard the sound of happy chirping and I watched as one of his parents came to him with food!  My heart rejoiced!  No, he was not abandoned. No, he did not perish in the storm. No, not a fuzz on his head was harmed! 

HIS EYE IS ON THE ROBIN...AND I KNOW HE WATCHES ME!
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Baby Bird finally hopped off the basil pot, along the edge of my deck, and then dropped to the grass below.  His parent found him there again and brought more food. I went to bed feeling so secure in Abba's love and protection, so blessed to have watched that little bird weather the storm.  And now it is the next day - bright and sunny - everything looking normal outside. Headlines on the news read, "Hurricane Force Winds in Colorado Damage Homes and Uproot Trees; Tens of Thousands Without Power."  That was true. We spent the rest of the day and night with no power. But I kept thinking about the Power that sustained the baby bird!

 I came downstairs to write this blog and just as I was about to finish it, my husband called to me from upstairs. "Kelly, come look! Your baby bird is back!"  I raced up the stairs and peered out the window. I couldn't believe my eyes! There he was, that precious little robin, now perched on the deck railing and staring into our back door window.  I gingerly opened the door and stood there for the longest time. I stared into his beady little black eyes and he stared back. I think I know why he came back. I could almost HEAR a tiny little voice say, "Thank you."

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