Perspective: Destroyed Nests

Articles

Jared Hagan
06/30/13 - Miscellaneous

I destroy bird’s nests.

No, I’m not mean or anything like that. In fact, I rather like having bird’s nests on my deck. I enjoy watching the courageous mother stay with the eggs, protecting them. It’s inspiring seeing the dad stick around to chase off predators and bring food to the mother. When the eggs hatch I look forward to watching them grow daily until they fly away. I’m on the bird’s side. I’ve been known to chase few predators off myself. So, no, I’m not anti-bird.

Why do I destroy bird’s nests? I do it to save the birds. A few years ago a bird built a nest on our porch light. That was a bit too close. One night, I made direct eye contact with the bird while going inside, and it flew off. Except, these birds can’t fly at night. It landed quickly and one of my dogs gobbled it up. Poor thing. I didn’t want that to happen again, so when birds started building their nest on my porch light, I tore it down before they were finished. They tried again and I did the same thing. This went on for several days. I could hear the birds chirping as they watched me tearing down their hard work…their home.

I was thinking about how my actions must have appeared to the birds. To them, I was cruel, pointlessly destroying their work. To them, I was the enemy. They didn’t know I was saving their lives. I didn’t enjoy tearing down their nests, but it was for their good.

What’s the point? I wonder how often this happens with our impression of God. Do you ever feel like God’s working against you? Like he isn’t answering your prayers or he’s causing things to fall apart around you?

Sure, it may seem like God is against you, but what if you could see what He was really up to? Remember Balaam? How he got upset at the donkey that was saving his life? There was no way Balaam could understand that the donkey was saving him until he saw the angel poised to kill him. Then, Balaam saw how wrong he was to blame the donkey.

What if we could see the things we don’t see? Would we see how God is saving us from much pain? Would we see how God isn’t answering our prayers because He is giving us what we really need? Would we see that God is on our side? I’m convinced that we would. After all, God has proven He loves us (John 3:16). We know that God gives us good things (Mt. 7:11; Jam. 1:17), but that doesn’t mean that they will seem good to us at the time. In fact, we know that discipline is for our good even though it definitely does not feel good at the time (Heb. 12:10-11)

We don’t see everything, and what we don’t see, matters. If we are a people of faith, then we should not blame God for the bad times in our life. Rather, we should thank Him for the good He does, even if we do not understand it.

But this isn’t just about our attitude towards God. We should be careful in the way we think about others as well. We don’t always have the whole picture about what others have done or why they’ve done it and what we don’t see matters. God’s word says, “Do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts” (I Cor. 4:5).

If I was a bird, watching my nest be torn down, I’d be mad…and I’d be wrong. Let’s not make the same mistake with God or with our brothers and sisters in Christ.