by Sr. Noeleen Mooney MMM       Ireland   24.04..2022

Have you ever wondered about birds’ nests? No, I don’t mean the size, shape or colour of them. What really amazes me is how they stay together. I mean how does the builder get the first few twigs to form a sturdy foundation if it is perched precariously on the sometimes-slender branches of a tall tree? Does it ever fall down and have to be rebuilt? I’m not sure, since I have never really watched the early stages closely enough, and nests are usually inconspicuous until almost completed.

When you think of it though, they are very precious things. They hold one of the most fragile of life forms, the egg. If the wind blows and the bough bends, so too does the nest, but rarely does it come to grief until its occupants are ready to do more than eat, sleep and grow.
Jesus talked about sparrows. Probably the fact that they were so plentiful (He tells us they were two a penny) made them easiest to watch. And what does he learn from this bird watching? He tells us how much more we are worth than many sparrows. (“Very consoling”, you say,” Good imagery, fine effect”). Jesus also tells us that not even one of the millions of sparrows falls to the ground without His Father’s will. If he could use these feathered friends to teach us about the power of His Father’s love, maybe we can learn something from them too. I am still wondering about those nests, though…