Taking care of birds

Yesterday, about an hour before we were to leave for me to have a back procedure, we heard a crash in our kitchen. With four cats in the house, it isn't all that unusual. We didn't even get up. Then Callie, one of the cats, came flying into the living room, sliding at one point in her exuberance. Just ahead of her was a little bird.

For the next few minutes, chaos ensured. We chased the bird, Callie chased us. Harry, the big black cat finally figured it out and began to chase all of us. Logan, the terrier-mix, began to chase everyone else. And on and on.

Finally, I caught the little bird in my hat and I got it outside. I gently lifted it, and it did not protest, and placed it on the ground outside our fence in the backyard.

I checked once, and it still lay there.

I checked again, and it was gone, praise God.

I'm sure it was a bit shell-shocked at what had happened, and Callie walked around muttering for quite a while since what she had dreamed of in watching those birds frolic outside our picture window had finally come true.

I thought, after I woke from the back procedure, about that line in Luke. Jesus tells his disciples in verse 23 "For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life."

Thinking back, I was worried about this back procedure. Don't know why. They've done this before. It doesn't seem that dangerous, though you have to sign forms. They put you to sleep and do something in the back and there you go.

Turns out I made it, though there was blood on the patch they put on my back this time for the first time and I hurt worst than ever. The pain will go away by tomorrow if form holds.

But why was I worried? I was worried because I'm getting tired of doing this stuff, and it doesn't last forever. If it did, why do they also give you a prescription for pain pills? Those thoughts rattled through my mind as I didn't drift into unconsciousness but rather fell as it is almost instantaneous.

God will take care of me. That's what all of the scriptures tell me. God took care of that bird by placing it in a home where people care about animals, all animals. I believe that. I believed that as I went to sleep.

I pray that bird made it. I'm sure it tried.

Ultimately, isn't that what we all must do? Despite hardships and calamity, we fight for life. With death breathing down our backs, we fight for life, the life God gave us. We fly away from it one day, ultimately, because death has been defeated by Christ.

All the rest is just the fight for life.