Article May 8, 1989 Issue

If only we knew God's Mother-love

Understanding God's tender care brings joy, peace, and strength—and makes us better mothers and fathers, too.

Barbara-Jean Stinson

The Bible says, "The sparrow hath found an house." I was certainly surprised, however, when I went outside one morning and found that a sparrow was busily making a nest right in the middle of one of our hanging ferns. For a moment I didn't know whether to be annoyed because the presence of the nest meant I couldn't water the fern, or delighted because we were obviously going to have some baby birds to admire.

Mother-love won out. Certainly the fern indicated in this particular case something of the meaning of that just-mentioned Bible verse, "Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God."^{Ps. 84:3.}

The mother bird seldom left the nest until two tiny babies were hatched. When she did leave the nest, I would rush outside and peer admiringly into the nest at those two fuzzy little heads. But the mother did not like my presence at all. She would fly anxiously around, doing everything she could to distract me. Realizing how much my admiration was disturbing the birds, I resolved to keep a proper distance. Yet as I retreated into the house, I thought, "Poor sparrow, if only you realized how benign I really am. I wouldn't harm your babies for anything in the world. You see, I'm a mother myself."

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