There was once a man who had just tucked himself in on a cold night in the dead of winter. He had just locked the doors, just bolted the windows, and snuggled into his sheets to listen to the artic wind pounding on the walls of his humble abode. He could see the snow pouring down from his bedroom window, although because of the wind, it looked as if it was going from earth to sky.
The man heard an unfamiliar sound. Something altogether different from the whistle of the wind that he had grown accustomed to. A rough tapping at the barn door outside his house. Curious, the man lit his bedside lantern and shined the light out his window towards the barn. A flock of sparrows, grounded in the north because of the sudden harsh conditions, were furiously trying to fly into the window of the barn. Drawn, as it seems, to the warmth inside.
Touched, the man tied his boots up over his pajama bottoms, put on a thick coat, and made his way out to the barn to open the door for his feathered friends. His cold hand still grasped the metal lantern while his other shielded his face from the wind. After what all would call a valiant trek, the man threw the wooden lock off the barn door to prepare a winter home for the sparrows. He walked around to the outside, grabbed a bale of hay, and put it in the corner.
The sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when the man first approached, hid in the darkness of the trees, afraid. They couldn’t comprehend that this unusual large creature actually desired to help them. “It’s alright.” The man said tenderly to the frightened birds, “it’ll be a lot warmer in here. Come on in!” he waved his arms in a friendly gesture of welcome, which only managed to scare the birds even further and send them higher into the trees.
But the man decided to commit, and then tried every manner of tactics to get the birds into the barn. He tried shaking the tree on the opposite side in hopes that the birds would flee into the safety of the barn. He tried laying a trail of saltine crackers and then hiding away in his house, watching. When the birds remained, he came back out and tried skipping and singing and flapping his arms, hoping that the birds would follow his example and flutter into the warm shelter. He tried asking them, he tried flocking them, he tried showing them, but it was no use. Apart from looking very ridiculous and forcing the birds higher into the dark tree, the man’s attempts were unsuccessful. The birds would not enter the barn or come to the foreign creature that was the man.
Deflated, the man returned to his house, perplexed. “If only I could become a sparrow for just a moment.” Thought the man. “Then we could finally understand each other and I could simply show them the way to the barn…”
Then another, much grander, thought came to the humble farmer. He now understood why Jesus had to come to earth from his throne in heaven.
The Sparrow’s Salvation:
The winter storm comes,
Lock the doors, bolt the windows, you’re safe.
Snuggle in your sheets,
Lay your head, take your rest from the day.
You hear a sound through the wind,
Get your lantern and go see what it is.
The sparrows at the door
Break their beaks, man they want to get in.
Compassion swells.
Mercy comes.
The world needs your help,
Get your coat on.
The snow’s falling up,
But you walk to the door anyway.
You throw off the lock,
Lay the ground, and you open the way.
Put the snacks in a line,
Set the trail, and invite them to warmth.
But they wait in their fear,
In the trees, now they’re cursing the north.
Compassion swells.
Mercy comes.
The world needs your help,
Get your coat on.
Open the door.
Invite them in.
But that’s not enough,
Come and get us.
The temperature drops,
Try your thoughts. but the sparrows, they stay.
Frightened birds hide their beaks,
Fly to trees, and they say, “stay away.”
The winter stays strong,
Look around, and you find a new way.
You strap on your wings,
Shine your beak, you’re a bird for today.
Compassion swells.
Mercy comes.
The world needs your help,
Get your coat on.
Open the door.
Invite them in.
But that’s not enough,
Come and get us.
Come and get us.
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