When Daddy Calls

For the past 3 weeks we have enjoyed watching baby bluebirds in their home on my back yard fence. Momma and daddy B come swooping in, chattering the whole time, with a bug in beak, and once they perch on the entrance to the house, those babies start squawking and fling their mouths wide open. It's been so much fun to watch em grow and change, not only in appearance, but their lil chirps have changed too. They've gotten louder, noisier, and seemingly more demanding :)
For the past couple days my momma has been intently watching the blue birds, because she had a hunch it was nearing time for the baby B's to take flight. Daddy researched it and discovered that the daddy B teaches the babies how to fly. So we've been watching intently until....
Yesterday as I sat on my back porch reading, watching daddy B swoop back and forth with food in beak. He fed the babies, then lit on the fence beside their home. He called to them in a pretty whistle that I had never heard him use before. This caught my attention, because as he called, the baby B's started practically jumping up and down in their home. He did this two more times and on the third time, daddy B whistled and baby B1 fluttered and plopped right out of the house into the grass. I gasped and ran to call momma, she was just around the corner, so she came flying into the house and we both watched in amazement as daddy B called baby B2 out...Plop, into the grass.
They are the cutest lil birds you've ever seen. One still has lil fuzzy baby bird fir and cute lil brown specks on his chest. They both sat in the grass fluttering their wings, learning to hop around, using muscles they've never used before. Daddy B swooped down above their heads, occasionally bringing them a bug and would take flight to the fence right above them, never too far away. He was teaching them how to use their wing things. They hopped around all afternoon and were still hopping and fluttering this morning, as they couldn't make it back into their home again.
As I think about the baby B's, I can't help but relate the story to us. It's so obvious watching the baby Bs that God's hand is in His creation and then it hit me.... I am His creation too. No, I don't have new wing things to learn how to use, or do I?
It was an amazing sight watching daddy B call his lil babies out of their comfortable 4 walled home. They didn't come out with the 1st call. It took him 3-4 pretty whistles to get them out. I couldn't help but think of how God beckons to me, His child, "follow me, trust me, come after me". I began to think of how they abandoned the comfort and safety of those 4 walls to plop in the grass in my backyard, where they had no clue what was below (rocks, other birds, fire ants, cats, dogs, etc.). They trusted the call of daddy B knowing that he knew best. Do I trust Jesus when He calls to me? Do I wrecklessly abandon my own comfort and plop into His will trusting His timing and plan? They plopped out of that house into a really big new world and trusted that daddy B would be close by as they figured out all this new stuff and got the hang of things. Do I trust that God will go with me when He calls me to hard, new things? Do I rely on His faithfulness that He will never leave me alone? It is taking them a while to learn how to use their wings. They had to endure a whole night out of their home, stuck on the ground, in the dark. I bet anything they wanted back in their comfy 4 walled home, where they could snuggle together and food arrived at their door about every 30 minutes. How often, in the valleys of the dark nights of my life do I long for the comfort of protection and control? Is my desire more for security and comfort or am I willing to give up my comforts, take risks, face danger, and possibly learn how to fly.
Holding to Jesus alone in the darkness of uncertainty, through the troubles and pains of this world is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It takes obedient trust and faith, which I have to admit I don't have most of the time. All I can lean on and say is praise God I heard Daddy call to me. I have heard His voice say, "this one is Mine". He has called me by name before the beginning of time, and so I am comforted to know that my name is inscribed on the palm of His hands, nothing can undo that and He will always be close by walking with me through this brief vapor of life's night. Lord, Jesus Christ, help my unbelief!?!