Not Forgotten
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, I suddenly found myself with more time on my hands than ever before when our office effectively shut down for one month. I am not in a profession where I can work from home, and with the entire world effectively shutting down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, I had some unexpected time to myself at home. I was able to take care of some neglected tasks at home, but I also took this time to pursue some new interests and hobbies.
One of the hobbies I took up was birdwatching. I never realized how many birds and different species of birds were in our backyard. I began by setting up a bird feeder outside our kitchen window. Initially, it was just a single stand with 2 feeders and now it has evolved into 2 stands with 8 different feeders and an additional feeder on an adjacent tree. I quickly became immersed in this new activity. I was pleasantly surprised to find a local store that was strictly for the hobby of birdwatching and carried everything and anything that one could ever need for this hobby.
Once the feeders were set up, the birds quickly found them and began to arrive on a daily basis to feed. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the different birds in our backyard. We had beautiful Balitmore Orioles, bright yellow American Goldfinches, colorful House Finches, regal Blue Jays, and bright red Cardinals. There were different varieties of woodpeckers including the Downy Woodpecker, the Red-Bellied Woodpecker and the Northern Flicker. I learned what a Mourning Dove looked like and have really enjoyed the brief sightings of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. Other visitors have included white-breasted nuthatches, black-capped Chickadees, and Juncos. Even beyond our feeders, I have sighted red-tailed hawks, a snowy owl and herons. Of course, there are the robins, ducks and Canadian Geese as well.
It was truly amazing that after living in this house for twelve years, this was the first time I had noticed and seen many of these birds in our backyard. Birdwatching quickly became an obsession for me. As soon as I would wake in the morning, I would come downstairs to look out the kitchen window to see which birds were at our feeders that morning. I would look out the window several times a day and constantly fill the feeders to keep them well supplied.
Shortly after I started this new hobby, I learned a valuable lesson. I began to take pictures of the birds to capture the beauty of all the different varieties. In reviewing the pictures, I later noticed something very interesting. In many of the pictures, there was a variety of bird that I really had not paid much attention to. In fact, they really didn’t catch my eye or attract any interest on my part as they were so common and did not have the bright, beautiful colors of the other birds. In fact, they are at the feeders on a daily basis. They were the very ordinary looking, common sparrows.
It was at this time, that I remembered the verse in the Bible about the sparrows from Luke 12:6-7, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?...Fear not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” These verses took on new meaning, as I further understood what Jesus was trying to say. God did not choose one of the other birds with spectacular colors for this object lesson, but the very common, ordinary looking, overlooked and unappreciated sparrow. It seemed that God was telling me, “Look, even you don’t value the sparrows enough to take notice of them or appreciate them, yet I remember each and every one of them. Jesus is telling us, if this is how much he values a sparrow, how much more does He value us for whom He died?
The next time you are outside, look for a sparrow and take note that it is a sign of how much God values and loves you. He tells us that He has not forgotten the sparrows and neither has forgotten you!
Charlie Ahn is an Ophthalmologist in the Chicago area. He serves as an elder in Lombard SDA Fellowship and is married, with 3 boys.