Common Sparrows

I have always liked birds. I love all of the seagulls we have in the fall. I am so excited whenever I see a hummingbird or a quail. Flamingos, birds of paradise, finches, bluebirds, pheasants, and turkeys the list goes on. The variety of birds around the world is overwhelming. But one bird I never really seem to notice is the sparrow. 

Sparrows are small, plain, and common. They have no lovely song or bright plumage to grab our attention. They generally live in large cities and nest on buildings. They scavenge for seeds or small insects and pretty much do their own thing unnoticed by most of the world. People around the world are familiar with sparrows, but they are so common and ordinary that I have never once heard anyone exclaim “Look a sparrow!” Why would we care about something so common, so plain, so ordinary?

If you have been in church for any length of time you have probably heard the song His Eye on the Sparrow. It is a beautiful song of God’s care and is based on Matthew 10 when Jesus is giving some instructions to His disciples. Jesus talks a lot about fear and God’s care in this chapter and then He suddenly throws in this lesson on human value using the common sparrow. 

Jesus knows what we are up against, He is familiar with our sufferings. One of the common sufferings of people is a misunderstanding of their value. We say things to ourselves “I am not a great singer,” “I am not attractive.” “I don’t do anything exciting or fascinating.” “I am common, plain, ordinary.” We de-value ourselves on many levels. We have no value because of money, heritage, race, gender, the car we drive, the shoes we wear, and the very food we eat. 

Jesus knew our tendency towards tearing people down. We tear another person down out of our pride and then turn around and tear ourselves down out of shame. We are masters of both self-righteous pride and low self-esteem. It is a subtle but painful abuse of our value as humans. So enters a beautiful lesson with something so common, the sparrow. Jesus points to a small bird that no one notices and tells us that God in heaven, running the universe, knows every time one of these plain, ordinary birds falls to the ground. It is a picture of an Almighty Father who cares deeply for even the smallest bird. 

God made the sparrow common. He gave it plain feathers and a simple life. The same God chose to make us in His image and declared out of all things He created that humans were very good. So consider, if this same Father is looking after birds that He designed to be common, will He not look after you whom He designed with more intricacy? Is there anything plain about another human being? Anything ordinary, when every person has a unique personality and story? We may not see the value God has given us all of the time, but the sparrow reminds us that God sees each of us as precious, valuable, and His. 

As you go about your day, dwell on all of the many passages that God has given us about our value and the value of those around us. When we walk in the truth of how much God loves us and cares for us, we can find peace and common ground that our Father has His eyes on all that He has made. Even the common, plain, and ordinary are precious to Him.

The 3 R's 

Revelation

This is not to be confused with end time prophecy but rather think of a light being turned on in a dark room. In 2013 our son had an MRI that revealed a brain tumor. Up until that moment, the tumor was literally hidden in the dark. It was not until the tumor was revealed that we could do anything that would help our son get better. This is the kind of revelation that starts the process of transformation. Unlike some good ole’ R&R revelation is often painful even scary. The light comes on and we find tumors, addictions, broken relationships, hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and any number of abuses. Revelation can shake the foundations of all that we thought we could count on. With revelation often comes the question “What now?” Although this is a raw place many of us would not wish for; without revelation problems are left in the dark and all they can do is grow. 

Repentance

Repentance simply means turning from one direction to a new direction. It is a 180 of the heart. With our son’s tumor, there was nothing to repent of in the traditional sense, but there was a new direction in our home. There had to be, the old ways of helping our son were not what he needed to get well. Repentance will lead to new thinking, new perspectives, new actions, and new directions. Revelation shows us there is a problem, repentance shows us the old ways do not work. Repentance is when we accept the reality of what has been revealed to us and we take the humbling steps of accepting responsibility and choosing to go in a new direction. Sometimes repentance is simply accepting the MRI report of a tumor, sometimes it is much more difficult. There are times when our choices in life have led to destructive habits that we need to let go of. We can choose shame which will lead us back to that dark room, or we can muster our courage and repent. There are times when we have been abused and now we need to let go of lies we believed. We can chose to hold onto those lies and stay in the hurt we are familiar with, or we can chose to believe truth and walk towards freedom. Repentance is hard because on some level we need to look in the mirror and face where we are and then make a choice. 

Restoration

 God uses a variety of things to shed light on areas of our life. This could be other people, scripture passages, a sermon, a song, prayer, or simply some quiet time in the woods. Often it is a series of things that God works together to help us see clearly. After the hard work of choosing repentance, our one part, God throws open the gates of heaven and starts the process of restoration. When we choose to go in a new direction we may start out feeling overwhelmed and lost, but God is longing to be faithful and more than willing to help. The challenge for us is not falling back into old ways. Restoration takes time. Things like hurts, habits, and lies did not happen overnight; these are often decades old and piled on top of each other. To restore something properly takes time and care. With our son’s tumor, we wanted the doctors to take their time. After all, there were delicate things like the brain and optic nerves close to the tumor. There are several masterpieces that were quickly “restored” by amateurs that ended up causing more damage. Rushing in for a quick fix to relieve pain or consequences may seem like a good idea, but it will often lead to patchy work that falls apart later. What God wants to do in the restoration process is heal the brokenness of our hearts and minds. Sometimes this healing process may need to undo patchy work or tear down the work of amateurs. We may have to let go of our own ideas. We may need to listen to new healthy voices. We may need to question and test things to make sure they are true and good. It might not “feel” right to us because we are so used to feeling hurt that we don’t know what healthy feels like. It might not make “sense” to us at first because God is teaching us His ways instead of our old ways.   

The beauty of the 3 R’s is that God is willing to do 2/3 of the work. God brings the revelation and does the work of restoration, all He asks of us is to choose. God is aware that the repentance part is hard work, but He also knows the choice must be ours. He loves us and wants to show us things that are hurting us, He cares about our brokenness and wants to heal us. God also respects us and wants us to have a chance to choose for ourselves. He understands many of us may not choose His ways, but He is loving and will not give up on us even if other people do. When some R&R doesn’t seem to last and your heart is heavy no matter what you do perhaps it’s time to pray about the 3 R’s.

Shameful Coverings

Shame is such an awful thing for the human soul. Every person I have ever met has had some level of shame, and I would venture to say that every person on the planet has carried shame at some point in their life. We live in a diverse world of cultures, languages, and regions yet shame seems to be one of a handful of universal things humans face.

This new burden of shame must have caused some poor thinking. Adam and Eve knew the plants in the garden, some people believe they may have even named them. We know they ate stuff, so I’m sure they had some figs and must have touched a fig leaf before. So why would they choose to make coverings out of those leaves? Most people have an allergic reaction to fig leaves and end up with some kind of rash. Unless Adam and Eve were extremely small, they would have needed a lot of leaves to cover the essentials. These must have been one of the worst leaves for clothing. Which is exactly like all of our coverings, inadequate and hurtful.

I am so thankful that Jesus gave us a new covering, the cross. You may ask how something that was designed to cause painful shame could be a better covering than my fig leaves. It is not necessarily the wood in the cross that can cover, but the act of Jesus finishing the redemptive process needed to destroy the burden of shame. The day Jesus died on the cross was a very different day than the one when Adam and Eve became organic tailors. While as humans we run for the bushes and grab the first small itchy leaf we can find, Jesus took up the cross of our shame and carried it for us. He made a new way, where shame was taken away and replaced with His goodness. 

We are so like Adam and Eve, but every day we have the chance to be like Jesus. Because of the good news of what Jesus did on the cross, I can declare like many of my fellow Christians, that I am unashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God. We can take up the power of God and rely on His word. We can bring our shame into His light and let Him wash it all away. If you find shame is stifling your heart and mind I urge you to run for cover under the cross where there is no shame.