At the parsonage in Rutherford College
a mama bird built a nest in our front porch geranium one spring. I discovered the tiny eggs in it one day
while watering the plant. A few weeks
later I opened to pour the water in and glaring back at me were baby birds with
mouths wide open. I kept watching the
mother come and go from the nest, and I was very careful to water my plant when
she wasn’t home and even more careful not to drown her babies as I nourished my
plant. I was looking out our storm door
the day the babies hopped out of the nest and took their first flight. I watched with tears in my eyes as they all
flew in different directions and as their mama sat chirping on the porch. These babies took off into our great big
world. They were on their own. They were free
to fly.
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| Not my baby birds, but this is EXACTLY what they looked like before they found freedom! |
In life there are many moments where
we begin a new journey. We have been
nurtured, we have been prepared, and yet we find ourselves on our own ready to
begin the new challenge. Free and
excited, yes! And sometimes scared out
of our minds. I think about going with a
few classmates to Russia my junior year of high school. Packed and ready to go. Prepared for journey. Free of the bossy nature of my parents and
really apprehensive about being on my own so far away from home. Then there was college, marriage, buying a
new house, starting my first appointment, bringing home new babies, moving to
new churches and new places, and the list could go on and on. During these times of new beginning, I often think
of a quote from the movie Hope Floats:
“Beginnings
are scary. Endings are usually sad, but it's what's in the middle that
counts. So, when you find yourself at
the beginning, just give hope a chance to float up. And it will.”
In the book of Romans, Paul tells us that “hope [will not]
disappoint [us] because God’s love has been poured into [our] hearts by the power
of the Holy Spirit (5:4) When I find myself
in moments of beginnings and places of freedom, I allow myself to find hope.
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