Sparrows are ordinary.
I watched as a little brown bird perched on the fence in my yard, searching the ground below for a tidbit of food. The wings spread as the bird jumped into the grass to retrieve dinner. Songs filled the air as a variety of birds tweeted their morning conversations to each other. Brilliant red cardinals flew with their breakfast from the bird feeder to the trees. Purple finches pecked away at seeds, and the tiny chickadees discarded pieces to the ground after perusing the selections and choosing what suited them.
The sparrows in the yard were abundant. But they didn’t stand out like the cardinals or finches. Nor were they cute and fluffy like the chickadees.
I sometimes feel like the sparrow in the human world. Nothing earthshaking about my life. I can’t proclaim achievements that would reduce human suffering. No great inventions that would aid technology or medical advances fill my resume. I blend in with the population like the little brown sparrow does in the aviary world.
But God reminded me of what He said about sparrows. Not one of them falls to the ground without the heavenly Father knowing about it. The sparrows have value too.
Ordinary has a place in the world. Without the ordinary sparrow, there would be a missing piece in the songs the birds sing every day. The thousands of insects the sparrows eat would be rampant if that plain brown bird didn’t exist.
Without ordinary people, there would also be a hole in the world. The missing pieces of the people puzzle would be scattered if ordinary people didn’t fill the population.
If you feel ordinary, remember our extraordinary God loves ordinary. Just like the sparrow, we are as special to Him as the cardinals.
Tell someone how special they are.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Barbara Latta’s desire is to help others find intimacy with God through a deeper understanding of the power of the Word. She writes a monthly column in her local newspaper and contributes to devotional websites and online magazines and has stories in several anthologies. She enjoys riding motorcycles with her husband. Their rides inspired her book, God’s Maps, Stories of Inspiration and Direction for Motorcycle Riders. Barbara’s blog can be found at www.barbaralatta.blogspot.com. She has two grown sons and one daughter-in-love and adores being Mimi to her granddaughter.