Window Friends

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I got up yesterday morning, expecting the day to be a busy one. We got our updated Exploring America off to one printer in Tennessee last Thursday. This Thursday we just had to get its Student Review pack to another printer in Pennsylvania. When I sat down at my computer, it was moving in slow motion. I gave it first aid–the tried and true method of turning it off and turning it back on.

I guess I didn’t really need to get started early after all. It was an hour before my computer finished performing some fifty to sixty updates and opened the program I needed. Instead of scurrying around doing one of the many other tasks screaming at me, I sat at my desk, enjoying my breakfast of yogurt and berries and talking on the phone to our daughter Bethany.

Out my window I saw birds fluttering in and out of a tree. For the first time, I noticed a nest. I grabbed my camera and headed outside, walking slowly toward the tree. To my surprise, the birds didn’t seem to notice me. This is twice this year that I have been able to get close enough to birds to get pictures.

How I would have loved that when I was a little girl. Back then, I thought I had to shake salt on a bird’s tail to get close. One Sunday afternoon at my Granny’s house it actually worked! She gave me some salt and helped me. Amazingly, Granny and I did catch a bird. As I recall, we put it in an oatmeal box. I didn’t actually want to catch a bird yesterday; I just wanted to catch some pictures.

This is home sweet home for these birds that share our front yard with us. A bird is fluttering in the center of this photo, just a few inches above its nest in the crook of the tree.

I can’t tell for sure, but I think two residents are standing side by side in the center of this one.

One bird flew above the nest (marked with an arrow) to the top of the tree where he performed the job of lookout.

He looked behind him.

He looked to his left.

He looked to his right.

He looked up.

He turned straight ahead and cocked his head to one side.

We can learn life lessons from birds. In Scripture God uses their behavior to teach us spiritual truths again and again.

Look at the birds of the air,
that they do not sow,
nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth much more than they?
Matthew 6:26

Consider these lessons from the birds in our yard. Birds living in the same nest stand together side by side. Birds look out for each other and keep on the lookout for dangers beyond the nest. Though they leave their nests for a little while, birds come back to the safety of home.

Like a bird that wanders from her nest,
So is a man who wanders from his home.
Proverbs 27:7-9

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