Lessons From a Mother Bird

The other evening, we were working outside trimming shrubs and doing garden work. My son was using the electric hedge trimmers and was unaware of the fact that a mother catbird had flown out of her nest and was scolding him for disturbing her peace. She was trying to get him away from her nest in one of the shrubs. She was frantically calling to her babies in the nest. She was not abandoning them, but instead was protecting them from a distance.

In a moment a little bird half- flew, half- hopped out of the shrubbery and tried flying unsuccessfully from the danger he felt he was in. The mother continued to call encouragement to her baby. He hopped into the tall grass and tried to hide. 

Within another moment, two more little catbirds did the same as the other one only this time, they stuck together and frantically called and hopped and flopped across the yard. 

We wanted to help them back to the nest, but we could not touch them. We did not know what to do. We hated to see these little ones get lost in the grass and never find their way back to the nest. 

Then we noticed that the two that stuck together had reached a tree a few yards across the lawn. Their mother, who had been watching them, flew down to the ground where they were. She chattered to them in her own bird language. The single bird heard their calls and headed in their direction. 

Darkness was beginning to settle in and we lost track of the bird family. We did see the mother bird later and hope that she was able to keep her little fledglings safe. 

The lesson from this is that when we leave the "parent nest", our Heavenly Father is always watching out for us. Just like that mother catbird, He knows right where we are at all times. He is calling out encouragement to us to help us find Him. 

Another lesson was that the ones who stuck together fared better than the one who went a totally different direction. They encouraged each other and went in the same direction. That is called fellowship in people terms. That is what God wants us to do for each other...

• Call out encouragement to each other.  
• Don't abandon a brother or sister in a crisis.
• Head in the direction of the voice of God.  He will lead you to safety.
• Even if we stray far away from God, if we stop and listen, He will always welcome us back.There was a bird reunion right there under the tree the other night. 
• God is always watching out for us even though we make bad choices and abandon what we know is right. 

As far as we know, the mother catbird was able to take care of her little ones. Our Father in Heaven cares for us, too. He sees when the sparrow falls from the Heavens and He will see us through the difficult times. How much more important are we than the sparrows? 

Thanks for reading.

Donna McHugh