Monday, August 19, 2013

A temporary nest - August 2013


The Carolina Wren is a small bird, barely 4 inches from beak to tip of the tail. They are a golden brown with inquisitive eyes. I was reading outside our camper when one of these little beauties landed on the shoulder of my chair. I had been watching the pair of them much of the morning. The industrious Wrens had been flying back and forth building their home. I admired their creativity but they were building this nest in my plastic basket full of beach towels. In and out, they wove their bits of leaf and stick and fur. They had the beginnings of a nice little cup of a nest resting among the towels. But we needed those towels and finally had to take away their home. In reality the nest would have been temporary at best. A plastic basket of towels sitting outside a camper is not a place to lay eggs and raise offspring! So, with a bit of guilt, we removed the towels from the basket, threw them in a chair and put the basket inside the camper. That should be the end of that right?
As I sat back in my camp chair, the wren came and sat behind me on the shoulder of my chair. He had a bit of blue thread in his beak. And he was looking for his home. This wren was 6 inches from my right eye and giving me a look that said, “ok, home wrecker, where is it? Where is my nest?”  Then he moved to the arm of the chair, right by my elbow and continued to look for the home he had built. Hopping from my chair to the table to another camp chair, my friend the Carolina Wren decided to start anew. Soon he was building a second nest – in the folded beach towels I had tossed in a camp chair. Silly bird.

My dear beautiful wren, why do you insist on building a home on things that are temporary? And why do I do the same thing?
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (MT6:19-21, ESV)

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