Surprise visitor!



 

A bird on the dining room chair?  Inside the house?   Yep, that what I came home to Monday after a meeting that took me away from the house for about two hours. 

In my dining room, I have a window seat under 4 windows that jut out to the side of the house. 

Under the left most window sits a bird feeder where chickadees, cardinals, finches, and titmice regularly visit me and we enjoy each other’s company.  I’ve found out the hard way that if anything touches it, the feeder  falls to the ground spilling all the food. I have to stand on a ladder to put it back up on a brick that holds it there. It’s a pain.  So when I open that window, I pull the screen down to just above the birdfeeder so as not to knock it off. 

It was beautiful outside the other day so I let the soothing, cool breeze in by opening all the windows.  When I got home from an appointment that afternoon, I was greeted by a purple finch
 

that sat perched on top of a dining chair (straight ahead in the picture above), looking out the window, trying to figure out how to get back outside.  Whether he’d been there two minutes or two hours, I don’t know.  He'd started on the birdfeeder outside like the one in the picture, but he hopped inside and the next thing he knew he was lost in the house and didn't know what to do.

You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought to myself. After I stopped laughing, unable to believe my eyes, I opened the back door, hoping he’d fly out easily.  He didn’t move.

I went over to the window and he flew up into the curtain, afraid of me.  I felt bad for him but was able to coax him down, eventually. “I’m not gonna hurt you”, I said. “I want to help you.” I said. After a couple tries, when I put my finger under his feet he stayed there. I brought my hand down very slowly, opened the screen, and set him free. 

It made me think.  The poor guy had stepped in the house and when he realized he didn’t want to be there, he didn’t know how to get back outside.  He could see where he wanted to go and that it wasn’t far, but didn't know how to get there. 

He couldn’t get outside without my help. But he had to trust I wouldn’t hurt him first.  Tough call, but he had no other choice if he was going to get outside again. So he relaxed a tad and sat on my finger long enough for me to let him out.

Have you ever been like that little bird?  In a situation where you’re stuck, and don’t know what to do? God always has our best interests in mind and wants to get us where we need to be. We have to trust him first, then relax and let Him point us in the right direction.