Wings of Hope

For the fourth year in a row we grew excited as a pair a birds returned to their nest at the top of the brick column that frames our front porch.  My family and I have watched these lovely birds with their distinctive song raise three or four fluffy gray and yellow hatchlings every year.  This year was no exception and as three hatchlings grew into fluffy balls, we watched the busy parents feed their always hungry family until the fuzzy youngsters began to sport real feathers and prepare for flight. 

After they were practically bursting the nest, the day finally came for the young birds to fly.  Two of the sweet birds followed their encouraging parents onto the rooftop and then took flight.  It was beautiful to watch, as always, but my focus turned back to the one remaining bird in the nest.  Even when the parents encouraged this young bird to join with them, it wouldn't budge. I watched this little bird for the next several days, but still it wouldn't leave the nest.  I wondered what could be wrong with the poor bird?  Was it too afraid to fly?  Did it have a defective wing?  At times the remaining bird would spread its wings as if to begin flight, but would never seem to clear the nest.

One day I came home to find the bird flopped sideways on the ledge outside the nest.  It looked not only exhausted, but completely dejected and hopeless, and I knew in my heart that something was not right.  I tried to get closer to the bird, but that only made the little bird frantic and made the parents swoop in on me, as well.  But I knew that something was definitely wrong and unless I intervened, I was going to watch this little creature die.

When my eighteen year-old son came home he pulled out a ladder and climbed up to the nest, while I stayed below armed with a garden hose to protect my child and myself from the frenzied, diving parents.  After climbing up, my son discovered that the bird was literally bound by its leg to the nest.  Somehow the fibers and string and hair that were contained in the nest had wrapped themselves around and around this poor little birds leg until it was trapped.  After struggling against its bonds for days, it was trembling and exhausted.  This bird had no hope.  It knew it would never achieve flight like it's siblings.  It was just waiting to die.  

My son couldn't free the bird.  He had to pull down the entire nest, along with the bird to help it.  With his sisters now gathered round and my oldest daughter holding the terrified bird, we worked to extricate the bird from its bonds.  The leg was bound tightly and one of its feet looked as if it might be broken.  With tweezers and tiny finger scissors we performed the delicate operation, finally freeing the bird, but destroying the nest in the process.   We had nowhere to return the bird to when we had finished, and so we carefully placed it in one of our hanging planters near the front door hoping the parents would return and rescue it.

We watched the little bird through the front window. The poor bird sat in the planter hardly moving for at least fifteen minutes and still the parents didn't come for it.  Our anxiety for the bird grew exponentially.   Finally we could take it no longer, and we went to move the petrified bird to a different location that was more easily accessible.  But just as we reached for it, the bird spread its wings and took flight and flew beautifully around the side of the house.   My heart soared with it!  The little bird that had almost died without ever really living was free and flying!  

"Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so powerful as hope.  With hope, one can think, one can work, one can dream.  If you have hope you have everything."  Author unknown

My little bird now had every opportunity!  I watched it fly around the yard for the next several days, learning what it needed to learn to succeed at being a bird.  And although it had a little injured foot, it seemed to get along just fine.

 

I've thought about that little bird on my despairing days when I have felt hopeless, and I've asked myself, "What am I feeling bound down by today?  What is it in my life that is keeping me from hoping and dreaming?"  And I've prayed in my heart to the Author of Hope to come and free me, so I can once again think, work, and dream.  

Hasn't He said not to fear for, "ye are of more value than many sparrows" and "not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father" knowing. The Author of Hope is mindful of each of us and our troubles.  He is ever waiting for our plea for help, and He can truly free us from our despairing no matter how tightly we are bound.  Talk to Him.  Lay your burdens at his feet.  Plead for His Grace and Mercy.  He is there to release those bonds so that you can fly!