Kingdom Harbor

From my forthcoming book Jesus Walks: Field Guide for Spiritual Conversations in Nature.

“God puts the fallen on their feet again and pushes the wicked into the ditch.” Psalm 147:6 MSG

While sleeping in on a spiritual retreat awhile back, I awoke to my Air B’nB host calling to tell me that a baby eaglet had fallen out of the nest in the front lawn and I might want to check it out. By the time I got up and out the door it was gone. I guess the sleepy worm doesn’t get to see the early bird! 

After breakfast I drove north to Itasca State Park for a morning walk among the tall pines. The trail led me through “Preacher’s Grove” named after an annual gathering of preachers back in the 1920s. This part of the forest boasts some of the oldest and tallest pines in the park that began growing up after a major fire around 1710!

A preacher’s life feels very short and temporary standing among those wooden giants that have endured three centuries of sunshine and storms. I’ve spent two decades assembling words to point people up to God, while these White Pines have been pointing up to the Heavens since well before the founding of this nation, two decades before George Washington was even born. I stood in awe of their fortitude and my finitude.

Now what are the chances of encountering two different baby birds on the ground in peril in the same day? Later that day, I came across a baby bird on a bike trail. The mama bird kept swooping down bringing it food and then disappearing. Walkers and bikers kept stopping and wondering what to do. I found a park bench near by and went to Google to find out how to properly handle such a situation.

Just as I was reading that “a grounded baby bird that appears uninjured, is old enough to have developed wings and feathers, is in no immediate danger and is being attended to by the mother should be left alone,” an old guy picked up the bird and brought it to a nearby tree branch off the trail. The mother panicked at first, swooping over his head and chirping fowl obscenities. But the man was gentle and went on his way after moving the baby bird to a more hospitable place. I lingered in the distance until I saw the mother bird once again tending to her young, and then I went on my way.

The man stopping to help the bird was wearing a red MAGA baseball cap, which got me thinking about birds and politics. “How can a man who is so gentle and compassionate toward a fallen bird support a candidate so glaringly lacking in compassion and even known to belittle and mock the vulnerable?” I thought. An unfair stereotype, perhaps. 

Just for fun, I carried this ornithological thought experiment even further as I walked down the trail, plucking the different ideological feathers represented by these two birds. The needy bird along the trail was a small, common and insignificant bird of an unfamiliar type: a sparrow let’s say. The bird was unable to help itself off the trail and to elevate itself to a better life. It risked hindering the upward mobility of the rest of the flock and required outside assistance to have a chance to make it. 

Meanwhile, what ever became of the majestic and strong eaglet in the front lawn today? Did the valiant symbol of freedom and independence muster its own strength to rise up and fly away to its lofty destiny? Or did its fierce and awesome mother swoop down, grab it by its great talons and carry her own fallen creature back to a respectable state? Most eagles are “Conservatives” you know and soar on the wisdom that “God helps eagles who help themselves” and denigrate nature’s social safety nets. “We take care of our own,” the mighty eagles sing. 

Little garden sparrows, on the other hand, lean more heavily on their “left wing” and live off the free handouts of neighborhood bird feeders and live in subsidized birdhouse apartments without paying any rent. Worst of all, these inconsiderate squatters leave their sh*t everywhere.

Still, I do wonder what happened to that baby eaglet. Maybe its overbearing parents detected an attitude of entitlement or a lack of initiative, and had no choice but to literally kick their fully grown eaglet out of the nest lest it be found at home still playing video games and snacking on dried worms on it’s 30th birthday.

These are the ridiculous, tongue-in-cheek thoughts of a person foolish enough to bring the noise and rancor of human politics with him on his walk into the quiet and peaceful world of nature. The main lesson to glean from this is to not repeat my mistake: keep politics out of the woods and let nature be a temporary respite from the worries of the City of Man. 

Nevertheless, even Jesus once reflected on the fate and value of fallen sparrows. He emphasized that if God cares for these relatively “worthless” birds (“two sparrows for a penny”), then how much more does He care for the plight of every single fallen human being made in his image. 

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt 10:29-31).

So, I guess Jesus also let his Kingdom politics invade his walks in nature once in a while.

REFLECT & DISCUSS:

1. How are we looking out for the poor sparrows falling to the ground and through the cracks in our society?
2. How can we work together to help everyone “renew their strength” and “soar on wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31)?
3. Do you feel more like an eagle or a sparrow these days? Why?