The Bird on my Porch

Tomorrow, the wife and I are hosting a party for Erin, my sister-in-law. She's graduating from Samford and heading to Northern Ireland in June to work with a church in a pretty rough neighborhood for a year. It's exciting stuff.

Anyway, because of the party, I spent a part of today getting the house ready. Part of getting the house ready involved getting some bird poop off the front porch. There is quite a story behind this bird poop.

On Sunday, Melissa called me up to the front windows to see what appeared to be a very sick bird perching on a chair on our front porch. It was pooping a lot. It looked very close to death. Melissa was rather upset and I wasn't far behind. Watching a creature die is not pleasant.

I went outside to see if he was well enough to fly. He tried to fly but only managed to hop on the ground. As I approached, he didn't move. He just sat there. It was rather wrenching.

We watched for a few more minutes. I was ready to gather the little guy up in a box and take him to the back yard where he could pass in peace, but we figured the front porch left him less exposed to cats.

When we come back a few sad minutes later, he was gone. Not gone as in dead, but gone as in not on my porch. I guess he wasn't so sick after all.

He comes back a little later, back to the same chair. He keeps pooping a lot. As I go back out to reexamine him, what I thought were the ruffled feathers of impending death looked a lot more like the down of new life. I helped him up on the railing of the porch. A bigger bird showed up a few minutes later and pecked his head a little bit. After that, the little guy hopped over to the other railing and flew off.

I guess he was just learning. I thought he was dead. There is a parable here, but it hits too close to what is happening in my heart to easily explain. The Lord speaks in amazing pictures. Give me ears to hear!

But, before you go thinking I was about to kill a baby bird, you've got to see the stuff that this guy was leaving on my porch. It was like puddles of neon. But it's gone now. That little dude had the spraints. Dang, did he ever.