Prayer between my Heavenly Father is sometimes frustrating. Some days I feel like…am I asking the right thing, is this too petty, is this too much, is this too little? Other days I just shake my head as I let Him hear my heart and then I go about my day. Then, there’s this prayer…open the eyes of my heart Lord and break my heart for what breaks yours. Weird when you think that type of prayer will be about something huge and then it turns out it can be something small.
About a week ago, I walked over to a building where I worked. There was this bird on the steps, it was injured and couldn’t fly. Taking survey of the bird, there were no feathers on its head or neck and it looked to have some red sores on the neck area.
As I got closer the bird was hobbling off in fear while making bird noises, so I thought it best to stop advancing as I just kept looking at the bird, wondering what I could do for the poor thing. I didn’t know what type of bird it was, but I did know it wasn’t a baby or an adult. I guess it could have been a crow or maybe a vulture, but I truly didn’t know. All I knew for certain is, it was injured, it couldn’t fly, and I felt really bad for it. I wanted to do something for it, I wanted to protect it, but I really didn’t know how.
So I went inside and asked the maintenance guy what we do for injured birds. He came outside with me and while his supervisor went and got the net they use to catch bats, I made some phone calls. SPCA does not handle wildlife so they gave me another number and I left a message and no one ever called me back. We called another office and they said they would send someone over. The bird was now in the net, but I can only imagine how scared it must have been. I left the bird with the man who had the net.
As my day went along, I kept thinking about that poor bird. It truly just broke my heart. For pity sakes it was a bird. And this injured bird broke my heart.
Later in the day I went to ask about the bird and I found out it had been taken over by the railroad tracks. No one hurt the bird but in case it had a disease or something, it was decided to move it away from people. I didn’t want to know anymore so I tried to put the bird out of my mind.
On the way home, I had to drive over the tracks which lay under the viaduct. I could not believe my eyes, but there was that bird again. Not under the bridge, but on the top, on the sidewalk next to where the all the traffic was. So it was not like I could get out of my car and go get it. I didn’t have a net or a box of any kind to put it in if I did manage to catch it. So what’s a girl to do? I pray for that injured bird and I cry.
Yup, I cried for that injured bird on the side of the road all alone with no one to help it. It seemed so lost and displaced. I felt helpless to help and I felt horrible that it had been moved from a pretty good place to a place of danger and now all I could think of was…what’s going to happen to that stupid bird that I couldn’t stop crying over!
So here I sit, telling you this story about my broken bird and I’m crying all over again. And you know what I know about that bird? I know it was an answer to prayer. First, I had been worrying over something for days and I asked God to break my heart for what breaks his. And He showed me a broken bird and that broken bird brought me back to His Word.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”~~Matthew 6:25-34
I was worried about things in my life. I know, I know..do not worry. I’m human, I don’t always get life right. Go figure. Say what you will, but in that moment, as I cried over that broken bird, I knew that broken bird was me and God’s heart was breaking over my own brokenness. And then I’m reminded that Jesus loves me. He…LOVES…me. I’d let the enemy in the door with my worry and God brought a broken bird to remind me I need not worry and He will heal my broken parts. Unfortunately, just like the injured bird, hobbling off in fear, I too hobble off, muttering under my breath while trying to take care of things the only way I know how; relying on me, myself, and I. Why on earth would I do that, when I have the Trinity? God, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. Now, that’s a force to be reckoned with, dontcha think?
John, 15:5 states, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Why do I forget just how close He is? Why do I forget just how much He cares? Why do I forget that He loves me with an everlasting love? Worrying bears no fruit. It causes so much stress on our bodies. We were never meant to carry that kind of stress, is it any wonder we can worry ourselves sick? Our worry hurts our Father in so many ways. Truly, I know, it breaks His heart.
He is a good God. He does not like to see us hurting, alone, detached from Him wondering what’s going to happen. He wants for us to trust Him, to stay close to Him and hear Him breathe and speak life into the very being He created. For you are fearfully and wonderfully made. He creates all that is good and light and lovely. He didn’t create a mess. Man creates mess. So if you’re life is a mess, then look for the One, who is good and He will show you the light, the truth and the way. Aren’t you tired of hobbling?
Blessed to be Broken 
Wow, this hit a very needed area in my life. Trish you are an amazing woman of God.