the wooden bird

I found a little wooden bird this morning.  He used to sit on one of my decorative birdhouses, but he had fallen off.  He used to be polished and painted very bright. Yet now, the rain had washed most of the paint away, the sun had dried him out, he’d lost his eyes.  I picked him up and looked at him and thought, “I paint rocks and canvas, I decorate vases and candles, I make them beautiful.  I’ll make you beautiful again, little wooden bird.”  So I carried him inside the house, I cleaned off all the debris that had gathered over the years and I began to paint him.  He looked like a sparrow, but I decided to paint him many colors and make him even more beautiful than he had ever imagined before.  I’m not finished him yet, but I decided to write about him, because he reminds me of what God does with us.

We fall off our perches sometimes in our lives, the sun and hardships of life dry us out.  The storms and rain that come our way in waves wash over us and sometimes we lose all our color and life.  It reminds me of a passage in God’s Word

What is the price of two sparrows-one copper coin?  But not a single sparrow falls to the ground without you Father knowing it.  And the very hairs of your head are numbered.  so don’t be afraid; you are more valuable than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)

Dearest Father,

We have fallen off our perches again, perhaps we are dry or sun-baked.  Perhaps our color is gone, and we’ve been tossed aside by others.  But You know us, You see us, You love us.  You pick us up in Your precious hands and hold us.  You clean off all the debris, the things that we have done wrong, the things we are ashamed of.  You forgive our sins.

 Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, make use beautiful as only You can.  Paint us with your beautiful  colors, and set us where many may see Your Great Work and turn to You and become beautiful themselves.

In Jesus name

Amen