Wednesday, May 3, 2017

                Many of us are familiar with Edgar Allan Poe’s eerie poem “The Raven”. If there is any line that I can quote by memory, it is “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” Eventually it is revealed that the visitor is a raven who has come to torment the poor bloke who hears the raven’s tapping.

                I don’t have a raven but I do have a little song sparrow who perches at the end of a branch of a shrub at the outer corner of the sun room and it loves to rap at the sun room’s plate glass window. It has been doing this for several days. There are a pair of them and they must be besting nearby. But I don’t know why this little bird persistently is rapping at my window. Does it see something it wants? Does it want in? Is it just saying “Hi! I’m your new neighbour”?  Does it just want to annoy me? It especially seems to like it when I go into the sun room. It’ll hop right up to the window and start pecking at it. It is there as I write this, tapping and rapping away. I hope that it has a strong beak.

                An old favourite Sunday School hymn is “God Sees the Little Sparrow Fall.” Do you remember it? “God sees the little sparrow fall, it meets his tender view. If God so loves the little birds, I know he loves me too.” (Maria Straub) Sparrows are, perhaps, the most common of the bird population. One hardly takes notice of them. They are rather blandly coloured. They aren’t like cardinals, blue jays, gold finch and the like with their bright, showy colours.  They don’t have the bold reputation of eagles, hawks, or owls.  They can strip a birdfeeder in no time flat. As one writer noted, “Because they’re so familiar and seemingly ordinary, sparrows have become a symbol of that which is of relatively little value.” (R. Cotrill)

                I don’t know about you, but I have had plenty of sparrow-times in my life – times of relatively little value. These are times when one feels small, helpless, and pushed aside by the big birds. One is certainly feeling far from being the top bird of the roost. Sparrow-times are times when one feels so ordinary, plain and common that no one is noticing your needs, caring about your concerns or addressing your fears. So, we are left rapping and tapping at some sort of spiritual or emotional window, hoping to get the attention of someone or Someone on the other side.

                Psalm 84 tells us that “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God,” (Psalm 84:3). Jesus picks up this theme with his words of comfort and hope, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight… Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows,” (Luke 12: 6, 7).

                Jesus told a parable that illustrated that God’s loving reign throughout his kingdom can be compared to a large bush that grew from a tiny, little mustard seed. “It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made their nests in its branches,” (Luke 13:19). Maria Straub described it simply, “God made the little birds and flowers and all things large and small; He’ll not forget His little ones, I know He loves them all. He loves me too, He loves me too, I know He loves me too. Because He loves the little things, I know He loves me, too.”

                Thus quoth the sparrow, “Evermore!”

Dale