I tried to shoo him out of the road. As I bent down to gently guide him off the road, something hit me in the back of the head. It was MAMA bird. She started attacking me for getting too close to her baby. Then, Daddy bird joined it. It really did look like a bad Alfred Hitchcock movie. I was screaming, wings were flailing but baby bird did not budge out of the road. I again attempted to move him but Mom and Dad did not want me anywhere near Jr. and flew at me again.
What was I supposed to do? I was about ¼ mile from home. If I left to get reinforcement, a car would squish Jr. in the middle of the road. If I stayed and tried to move him, I might get my eyes pecked out. Not knowing what to do I just stood in the middle of the road. As cars came by, I directed traffic around the bird. No one could see the baby bird from their car because he was so tiny and was the same color as the road. I know I looked like a crazy woman.
I finally came up with a plan. I flagged down a passing car and asked her to stop by my house and tell my family that I was stuck in the road guarding a baby bird whose parents were trying to attack me. Somewhere in her telling my children to tell their dad about my situation, there was a translation problem. All that was told to Steve was that he needed to come quick; I was in the middle of the road and needed help. I think Steve assumed that I had passed out from running. He quickly came to my aid and was a little upset to learn that he had run down the road not because I was lying unconscious in the road but was trying to rescue a baby bird.
By the time he got to me and the bird family, Mom and Dad bird had disappeared. When I tried to explain the bird attack to him, the culprits were nowhere to be seen. He gave me a BIG eye roll as to say “give me a break- a bird attack????” and bent down to pick up the baby. Then from out of nowhere, Mom and Dad appeared.
Steve picked up the baby and mom and dad were having none of it. All I could see after that point was Steve running and wings flying everywhere. Each bird kept dive bombing the top of his head. Even after Steve rescued Jr. and took him to safety, mom and dad bird were still intent on punishing Steve for touching their baby and kept attacking him. I don’t know what really happened next because I was laughing so hard I could not see.
My boys started down the street to see what was going on. They had seen everything from a distance. They could not tell what Steve was running from. One of my boys said he thought he was being attacked by a swarm of bees, the other one thought it was a bat attack (he must have watched too much Animal Planet) and a friend that was with them said he thought it was a bad case of diarrhea (he must have seen some bad cases of diarrhea in his life to think that running from a bird attack is what the symptoms of diarrhea look like). But anyway……
I do have a point to this story that I can relate to our Tuesday Together in the Word reading.
Think about these birds; they were willing to go up against Steve to defend their baby. They did not care about how much bigger he was than them. They were readily willing to give up their life for their baby.
In our reading this past week in 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul says:
But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.
John MacArthur says in his commentary on this verse that Paul’s affection for the Thessalonians was like that felt by a mother willing to sacrifice her life for her child as was Christ who was willing to give up His own life for us.
What would you be willing to defend even if it meant going against a giant? What would you be willing to lay down your life for?
Please go to Dee Dee’s site to join us for more Tuesday Together in the Word blogs. This week, our reading will be 1 Thessalonians 4 & 5, 2 Thessalonians 1-3, Psalms 44 & 45, and Proverbs 11.
Blessings to you,
Kelly
