Rev. Don Campbell
A LESSON FROM THE BIRDS
I recall some words of wisdom given to me when, over a quarter of a century ago, I was the Executive Director of New Pathways for Children, a residential treatment facility for adolescents. My part-time maintenance man was an older gentleman we called “Mr. Dan.” Mr. Dan gave me some words of wisdom that I want to pass on to my Facebook friends.
Mr. Dan’s wife had abandoned him and his young daughter, whom he raised to adulthood. He always told her, “Honey, look at the birds. They always build their nest before they lay their eggs.” Seems so fundamental, doesn’t it?
In a study tracking the first wave of millennials to become parents, Andrew J. Cherlin, Elizabeth Talbert, and Suzumi Yasutake of Johns Hopkins University found that 64 percent of mothers gave birth at least once out of wedlock. Almost one-half had all their children without ever exchanging vows. They know a lot about the “birds and the bees,” but nothing about nesting.
In the Old Testament—and probably in the new—birds-built nests in God’s temple (Psa 84:3). If only the millennials and their offspring would take shelter in the God’s living temple, instead of flitting here and there in search of meaning, the world in which their grandchildren will be born would be a much better one.
