Last Spring I wrote a blog post entitled: “Bird Babies on a Beam.” I would like to present to you version 2.0 – “Bird Babies on a Bright Bulb!”
After the bird babies from last summer had hatched and flown the nest, hubby removed the nest from the beam. And … all across the length of the beam he installed a spiky pointy strip from our metal garden fencing. Surely that would make the beam less inviting for nest-building.
This past week I was outside working in the forest when my attention was caught by a bird busily flying into and back out of the car-barn.
My immediate thought was to wonder if it might be the same bird which had built the nest on the beam last year. After all, when it comes to finding the right home, location is everything!
I guess the car-barn must be the perfect location.
I decided to take a look and see where the nest-building was going on this time. Surely not on the beam.
No. Not on the beam.
Much higher this time. Way up on top of the big light.
That just won’t do! That bird nest is going to make a mess all over our car! We can’t have bird poop and mess all over the top of our car!
That nest must come down!
Clearly the mama bird hasn’t laid any eggs in the nest yet. She’s still actively in the process of building it.
So I grabbed my shovel and, holding it by the very bottom edge, reached it as high up as I possibly could, to try to knock the nest down.
But alas … the nest was far out of reach!
I pondered going to get the long extension tree-pruner. But somehow it seemed really cruel to use that to knock the nest down. I pondered climbing on top of the car … I could surely reach it from there. But somehow that also seemed cruel to do.
The mama bird was being so diligent and working so hard! She really needed somewhere safe to lay her eggs. It seemed so cruel for me to knock down her nest. Where would she lay her eggs?
I decided to leave the nest alone. The mama bird could have that spot for her babies.
That being said, there was still quite the mess of moss all over our car!
The snow-scraper/brush is now close at hand any time I need to go somewhere. (Ha!)
Bird babies in a nest make a mess! So it also is in life. Life is messy! People are messy! If we are going to pour love into raising our kids … or pour love into the lives of others around us … it is going to be messy!
To truly love someone with the love of Jesus means that it will be inconvenient. It will cost. It will require self-sacrifice. This is what it means to love. Putting up with the mess.
I might say that I love bird babies … but if I’m not willing to put up with the mess, and if instead I knock their nest down because it’s inconvenient for me … then I don’t love.
The same thing is true when it comes to loving people. If we claim to love someone … but if we aren’t willing to put up with the mess, and instead choose to do whatever is convenient for us … then we don’t truly love.
Love puts up with the mess. Because life is messy! People are messy!
If we truly love, we’ll put up with the mess.
“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean (the stalls are clean):
but much increase is by the strength of the ox.”
– Proverbs 14:4
