Luke 12:6

Today I trimmed the tops off some of the tall juniper trees in our back yard. During the time I was trimming, I noticed three or four nests in among the branches. Though I did see a small, bluish-white egg that had fallen and cracked on the ladder step, I had not seen any other signs that the nests were occupied. Later, while condensing the pile of branches into the recycling container, I was saddened when I pulled away a limb and found an infant bird lying lifeless in the grass. It made no movement, so I got the shovel and buried it in the dirt.

Near the end of my task, I picked up one of the remaining limbs and saw another small bird. But this one was breathing! It was lying with its chest in the grass; its back moved up and down with fearful breaths. Though glad to see it alive, I wondered what I should do about it. I thought about how I had buried the bird's sibling. Surely this bird is injured, I thought. There's no way the bird will survive. I should grab the shovel and quickly chop off its head...spare the bird from its certain misery. Or maybe I'll just leave it here in the grass and let the cat take care of it. I thought killing it would be the best thing I could do for it. It would certainly be less trouble than trying to save its life. But I decided to wait. I finished putting the greenery into the recycling container, careful to avoid the area where the infant bird was resting. All the while I thought about how the bird is a valuable life, being one of God's creations.

Fortunately, I have a mom around who knows what to do in situations like this. I told her about the bird and we went around to look at it. By this time the bird had sat up a little bit, and I was happy to see it was able to raise its head and move its tiny wings and legs. Mom talked to it lovingly, the way she would to any small, helpless being that needed to be comforted. She put on some gardening gloves, knowing that a mother bird may reject the baby bird if it has the odor of a human on it. I took one of the nests retrieved from the cut branches and Mom placed the little bird in it.

She found a medicine dropper that she didn't know she had, and attempted to give the bird water. We thought about where to put the nest. Andy suggested that we build a birdhouse for it to protect it from the elements, but we ended up placing the nest in the same tree that it was probably cut from. I intend to check on the nest tomorrow. We hope it will survive.