I believe that God speaks not only through his written word but through the word of creation. One of my favorite creatures in this realm is the sparrow. My earliest God-memories begin with this lowly fowl. I was vagabonding about my neighborhood looking for the friend who would be allowed to come out and play when I caught sight of a dead sparrow. I don't know why, but it was such a profound moment for me. My home was not at all religious or God loving, rather, it was quite the opposite, yet in a deep six year-old way I thought of God and how terribly wrong this vision was. I had the theological revelation that this is not the way it is supposed to be. I examined that poor little body intensely. I could not stop, partly, because when do you ever really get to look at wild things up close.
Its feathers were missing on its breast and I marveled over its thin tender flesh. I studied the pattern and color in its humble plumage. It, though dead, was unique, complex in its form, even in this humiliated state. This bird was holy to me and turned my thoughts to God. In his mysterious way, the Abba of Jesus, was getting my attention or, as a character in the movie,"The Color Purple" says,"God was makin' a pass at me." I remember that It was very important to me to wrap this fallen one in a discarded tissue, to respect its dignity and place it in the sanctuary of earth. This is one of the many sacred moments that the Holy One has entrusted to me. A grace moment so lavish, it has remained intact in my memory. It would be one of the first footpints in my "sparrow's life" on her migration towards the the bosom of Jesus.

I have not begun this cyber-voyerism to express my thoughts on theology; post-modernism; modernism, big church; small church; doctrine; moral codes; Christian parenting; prayer in schools or other things that will never make it through the crucible. I want to share the "sparrow moments of life".....that most often, God shows up in the humblest, strangest places..... if we are really looking. He revealed, to a young child with no memory verses, or Sunday school, through a common sparrow, his redemption. Maybe this silent nestling's testimony was God's way of not allowing "one to fall without His knowing"-----he remembered and honored her suffering and death by revealing to a little lost girl, that it is not the final word...that there is a Father of the Heavens that has pierced this sin-faded world and continually sings His Sparrow Song.....listen!

"Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The Winter is past the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear upon the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.........The Kingdom of your true Father has suddenly come upon you. "

May you see the majesty and tenderness of Jesus in the humble and forgotten. In the least of these, let yourself be awakened to the ubiquitous messages of God's intimate love....the sole cry of your own sparrow heart.