Baby birdie

This spring has been so exciting for my little growing birdwatchers.  They have sucessfully located every nest in the neighborhood, identified it by it's shape, color of eggs, and of course the pround parents.  It's been a learning experience for all of us as they explore.  The first nest they found was on the corner fence post of our four foot fence, needless to say it received so much unwelcomed attention that the parents soon abandoned their eggs.  I was hoping after talking about the eggs that would never hatch that the children would leave all future nests alone...ha!
So three abandoned nests later the kids are still on the hunt to destroy yet more bird families.
This morning they found a robin's egg hatching on the sidewalk.  The puny, bug-eyed, sickly looking hatchling was flopping around blindly half in and half out of a little blue shell.  We sat and watched in wonder as it fought desperately to escape the grip of the only home it knew.  Ethan quickly spotted the nearby nest in a small sapling on the tree lawn.  After grabbing a pair of gloves and a step ladder we gently removed the bird from the sidewalk that was heating up quickly in the blazing sun.  Ethan carried it tenderly up the ladder and unceremoniously dumped it into the nest. 
As we backed away and watched intently we saw the mother robin.  She flew to the nest and away again several times and eventually settled in with her new dependent chick.  We walk past he nest daily so I am sure will we soon hear the chirps of a hungry growing birdy.
My little chicks would be helpless without me, while this little bird will probably be flying by summer's end.  I know God purposely designed humans to be with their parents longer than almost any other creature created.  Sometimes I wonder why. There are days when helping them leave the nest and spread their wings would please my selfish nature.  For some reason it takes much longer for us to learn how to walk in this world...we struggle against our true home, the kingdom of God.  We balk at being aliens and try desperately to fit in and "go with the flow."
For me homeschooling was that sort of a decision.  I knew it would set our family apart.  I knew we would take some ridicule.  When that happens in life we have a decision to make, we can hang our heads in shame, or we can count it all part of sharing in the suffering of Christ.  For even though we are in this world we are not of this world and in that thinking I walk in truth and the knowledge that my chicks are in this nest 24/7/365 for a reason.  A reason that will not make sense to the world at large...my children will not be left on the scalding sidewalk of the world's education system, they will be trained as kingdom warriors, as a people set apart. For His mercies are new every morning and I need to tap into those daily in order to be the early bird that gets the worm...afterall I have a nest full!

Snappy

We were traveling home from a graduation open house in Cable, Ohio yesterday and along side the road we spotted a turtle.  I slowed down and poitned it out to the kids and my middle, Ethan, wanted badly to stop and take a closer look and try to get it off the road.
I turned the van around and found a driveway near the site and we scrambled out of the van and headed to see little snappy.  He was not so little either, his carapace (shell) was about a foot in diameter and he had some serious claws.  There was algea growing along it's back which showed it was used to living in water and was somehow displaced.  I tried moving it along from the back end with my foot but it would not budge.  Normally I would have felt brave enough to pick it up and move it into the grass, but its head kept lurching out trying to scare us off...it worked.  I took a few pics with my phone and we hustled back across the county route and into the air conditioned van.
Ethan was sad that it was so close to the road, he was near tears as we pulled away thinking about that poor snapper getting struck along the road.
It made me think of how God must feel when we are on the brink of darkness as we think about sinning, are sinning or have sinned and are hiding from His presence.  He really wants to move us to safety but he won't move us against our will.  He may even nudge us in the right direction, but still we have to move as well to actually get there.
God is a gentleman and will not push us against our will.  Yet how his heart must break as we sit so close to descruction for He knows the pain it will cause, He knows the recovery will be long and drawn out.  God sees us along the side of the road, he stops and helps, it's up to us to walk it out.
Thank-you Lord for allowing me to see your heart through the short visit with snappy.