Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. Matthew 10:29 Berean Standard Bible
We named him Enoch. Our little bird for whom we have been praying. He finally left the nest in one of our hanging baskets. Each spring, we suspend two ferns from our upstairs balcony. The first few years living in this house when bird mommas would select one of our plants to lay her eggs, I would disassemble the nest’s progress each day. Miserly Maria did not want to sacrifice a large fern! But the bird parents proved unstoppable and I finally yielded to God’s will. Now we pray for the eggs and the hatchlings to make it. We don’t water the ‘chosen’ fern, but just monitor it, knowing we’ll replace it once the little ones launch.
This season, as the hanging basket chosen by a new bird family grew lighter from no water, occasional strong winds would whip it around. One night during a rainstorm, the unthinkable happened. Mike found the fern on the deck the next morning. Two naked fledglings had been tossed out, one dead and one still breathing. He quickly scooped up the survivor, carefully placing him back into the nest.
We started praying, not knowing if the parents would take care of him. But they did. And Baby Bird started to grow. More rainy and windy days followed, so we carefully placed a small can of tomato sauce in the nest to give it some weight.
In time Enoch, as we named our survivor later, sprouted wings and started to flutter everytime we came near to water the other hanging fern. His parents appeared attentive, feeding him regularly. He seemed to have reached maturity. But he wasn’t leaving the nest. Could he have PTSD from having been flung to the ground? Or was one of his wings broken?
On Monday of this week, an entire community of sparrows flew around the nest, loudly chirping as if to encourage Baby Bird to try his wings. We didn’t know what to do. We kept praying for wisdom. We wanted the One who loves birds to handle this, since He knows them better than we do.
Then yesterday we decided to place the hanging basket on the floor of the balcony and turn it so Baby Bird could look out at the sky and not at our balcony door. Once the basket was on the deck, he was almost head down at an angle, looking like he would fall the two inches out of the nest. There he remained, seemingly paralyzed with fear.
A few hours later, he was no more to be seen. Mike looked all around the balcony and I checked the ground underneath including in the bushes. Enoch was truly gone. The Lord had come through! Our baby bird had launched.
Now you can understand why Mike named him Enoch. Genesis 5:24 describes his namesake: Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.
God really did hear and heed our prayers for this little sparrow. What a beautiful picture of why we can be all the more assured that Jesus hears our prayers and knows exactly what we need. We can confidently rest in the Lord who cares for all His creation, especially those who bear God’s image.
Yes, it’s a dying petunia we have hanging up over our back patio.
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