Winks from God

I have a family of cardinals that came to live in a tree in my backyard earlier this year, and I watched these two cardinals begin to build their family in this tree as they had their first two baby birds. One day, a hawk flew through the yard and grabbed something, then landed on my fence. I could see he had gotten one of the babies. Now cardinals are fiercely protective, and they were frantic when this happened. As the time approached for the remaining baby bird to learn to fly, their senses had been heightened. It seemed like they were even more aggressive than before every time the baby tried. After many falls and attempts to fly, he did! But imagine how hard it is to let your child go so they could learn to survive on their own and fly, and at the same time, that fierce protection wants to just hold them tight and never let go. God feels the same way about us. He wants to protect us from everything, but He knows if He does, we will never grow and mature as Christians. The parents of the baby cardinal were never far, and they were always ready to pick him up when he fell. Like a loving Father, God is always there to pick us up if we fall. This year has had lots of twists and turns and many falls, but I believe God is picking us up and helping us learn to fly.