Out on a Limb

Currently my attention is drawn to my cottage window where the Lord has begun to call class into session for me.  The scene is set on the tree in my back garden.  The massive branches eclipse the view from my house and only allow glimpses of the countryside to sneak through the leaves. In those leaves a little sparrow zips about and eventually takes a breather on a dead limb, not long after the little guy perches the wind picks up and what seemed like stability is now wagging back and forth like my puppy’s tail.  It’s at this moment that I begin to wonder if that sparrow was taking mental tally of the “What if’s”.  Had he really thought through all the angles before choosing this branch?  Was his little birdie brain wrestling with the circumstances?  Did he start to question if it was all going to be okay?

Probably not

None of the questions that I was wondering about seemed to really matter to him as he spread his wings and just flew away into the breeze.

King David said in Psalm 102, “…I am like a sparrow alone on a housetop” and so too, I often feel like I’m out on a limb like the sparrow in my back garden.  I wrestle with the day-to-day decisions and wonder if the place I perch is only moments away from bending and breaking.  Like the sparrow, the Lord allows occasion to hang out and get my feathers ruffled or to open my wings of faith and depart from my worry.

Today has been one of those days where the building circumstances seem to clinch like a fist and sucker punch me in the gut.  I’ve been reminded how fragile I am when the pressure of life builds and my eyes aren’t fixed on the Lord.  In between prepping to move house, crunching the numbers for bills and expenses, and balancing decisions that pile up day after day, I sense the Lord breaking me down.  After my culmination of brokenness I wonder why I habitually test the laws of futility by trying to shoulder everything. It seems only after I have re-established my status of “knuckle head” that my eyes are opened to the reality of my situation and the Fathers limitless supply of grace and mercy being poured out over me, and my perspective from my cottage window can be maintained.

Interestingly enough the Bible mentions the similarities between sparrows and us more than once.  It was Jesus, who said,

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Matthew 10:29-31 NKJV

By: Dan Toro

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