a sunbird, her nest, and india
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3
I turned on the news early this morning to see the collapse of a highway in India. People buried in the rubble and lives lost. A bit later I read a devotion from an early publication of Streams in the Desert, volume 2.
Miss Amy Carmichael, (a missionary in India in the early 1900's), gives a beautiful illustration from nature of this kind of trust. The sunbird, one of the tiniest of birds, a native of India, builds a pendant nest, hanging it by four frail threads, generally from a spray of valaris. It is a delicate work of art, with its roof and tiny porch, which a splash of water or a child's touch might destroy. Miss Carmichael tells how she saw a little sunbird building such a nest just before the monsoon season, and felt that for once bird wisdom had failed; for how could such a delicate structure, in such an exposed situation weather the winds and the torrential rains? The monsoon broke, and from her window she watched the nest swaying with the branches in the wind. Then she perceived that the nest had been so placed that the leaves immediately above it formed little gutters which carried the water away from the nest. There sat the sunbird, with its tiny head resting on her little porch, and whenever a drop of water fell on her long, curved beak, she sucked it in as if it were nectar. The storms raged furiously, but the sun bird sat, quiet and unafraid, hatching her tiny eggs."
I looked online for an image of the sunbird and her nest. They are a little jewel of a bird, flitting about in frail flowers and branches.
"We have a more substantial rest for head and heart than the sun bird's porch! We have the promises of God. They are enough, however terrifying the storm." J.C. Macaulay
Whether your struggle is ongoing, or just terrific in the moment, take comfort in a God who created even the tiniest creature with the knowledge of how to preserve and protect her own. That's pretty amazing to me. How much more will He protect and preserve you.
And praying for India, for lives to be kept and sheltered.
I turned on the news early this morning to see the collapse of a highway in India. People buried in the rubble and lives lost. A bit later I read a devotion from an early publication of Streams in the Desert, volume 2.
Miss Amy Carmichael, (a missionary in India in the early 1900's), gives a beautiful illustration from nature of this kind of trust. The sunbird, one of the tiniest of birds, a native of India, builds a pendant nest, hanging it by four frail threads, generally from a spray of valaris. It is a delicate work of art, with its roof and tiny porch, which a splash of water or a child's touch might destroy. Miss Carmichael tells how she saw a little sunbird building such a nest just before the monsoon season, and felt that for once bird wisdom had failed; for how could such a delicate structure, in such an exposed situation weather the winds and the torrential rains? The monsoon broke, and from her window she watched the nest swaying with the branches in the wind. Then she perceived that the nest had been so placed that the leaves immediately above it formed little gutters which carried the water away from the nest. There sat the sunbird, with its tiny head resting on her little porch, and whenever a drop of water fell on her long, curved beak, she sucked it in as if it were nectar. The storms raged furiously, but the sun bird sat, quiet and unafraid, hatching her tiny eggs."
I looked online for an image of the sunbird and her nest. They are a little jewel of a bird, flitting about in frail flowers and branches.
"We have a more substantial rest for head and heart than the sun bird's porch! We have the promises of God. They are enough, however terrifying the storm." J.C. Macaulay
Whether your struggle is ongoing, or just terrific in the moment, take comfort in a God who created even the tiniest creature with the knowledge of how to preserve and protect her own. That's pretty amazing to me. How much more will He protect and preserve you.
And praying for India, for lives to be kept and sheltered.