"Oh, look! A baby bird!" I exclaimed as we stepped out of the car. A plump, feathered blue jay was sitting on the grass directly in front of us with it's mouth gaping as if asking us for food. We were late for church at the revival we were attending and found the parking lot full. We'd had to park on the grass under spreading branches of a tree. The little bird must have fallen from a nest above. I hated to leave it, but we wanted to get inside to hear the popular evangelist.
My first impulse was to pick up the cute nestling, but images came into my mind of the time I found baby birds on the ground when I was six years old. I picked them up and lined them up on the fence, when suddenly I felt the fury of the mother bird as she lit on my head and drilled it with her sharp beak.
Another time, more than 30 years later, I stood on a ladder to get a peek at the cheeping babies in a nest built in a tree overhanging our deck. I had just managed to look, holding to a branch as I steadied the step-ladder I had placed on our deck, when I heard a maternal shriek and was almost knocked down by the swoop of the protective mother who must have been watching from afar.
Hoping this baby's mother was hovering nearby, we went on into the church. I could only trust that she had shepherded it to safety, for it was gone when we came out.
The service had been amazing! The fiery lady preacher was of the old school, having preached for some 40 years and peppering her sermon with incredible experiences and miracles from her years in ministry. The congregation was like the baby birds, mouths agape in awe and wonder, and hearts open and hungry for these fresh words from God.
The sermon this evening had been titled, "The Battle is the Lord's," taken from David's encounter with the giant, when he said to the Philistine, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled," I Samuel 17:45.
Other biblical accounts were referenced, such as the battle of Jericho; and of the four lepers who famously said, "Why sit we here until we die," and approached the camp of the enemy who had held the city of Samaria hostage. God caused the Syrian camp to supernaturally hear the sounds of horses and chariots, causing them to flee and fulfilling Elisha's prophecy of the deliverance of the city by God in II Kings 7.
What a relief to know the Lord will fight our battles if we turn them over to God! I have turned over to God a situation that has affected us, and I know He will determine the outcome. Like the mother bird defending her young, he will come to our aid in our distress, even gathering us under His wings as the mother hen shelters her brood. We may be blown about by the storms of life, but according to Psalm 91, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
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