I have two beautiful friends that just won’t go away.  No matter how hard I try.

They just won’t spread their wings and fly.

They come back to me over and over again, despite my efforts to encourage them to be on their way.  Every morning they appear at my window–rather, fly into my window.  Believe me, I’ve tried to stop them.  I scare them away only to have them return and continue their attack on their own reflection with a vengeance–all in the name of honor and duty.

These cardinals are about to be parents, and they are doing their very best to defend their territory.

Did you hear me say, “with a vengeance”?

I did the research.  Online, of course.  And after weeks of these birds actually shedding their own blood on my windows, I decided to take action.

Apparently these birds are not scared off easily.

You can see that this so-called deterrent became nothing more than a perch…

We have tried the hawk stickers on our windows and shiny spinners that are supposed to scare them off.

They attack them all.

So here I am, trying to be patient while I ponder the lesson to be learned from these small friends.

Why do they persist in such futility? Never giving up, they continue their quest day after day after day.

To no avail.

We humans are not so different: fierce when it comes to protecting the things we love, we can be stubborn and determined to the point that sometimes we are only harming ourselves in the battle to take charge.  We hit a wall and rather than turn to the One who created us, we return to unproductive behavior. There is an idiom in our country that epitomizes what these birds and we humans are doing.

“Beating our heads against the wall”.

Only in this case it’s a window.  But the picture is very clear: Too often we flap our wings (sometimes our tongues!) in ways that can not only be foolish, but even harmful.

In our haste to defend or justify ourselves, we forget Whose we are.  The God who created us and loves us offers His protection and provision.  Taking things into our own hands can actually be a denial of God’s power and purpose.

Psalm 119 is one my favorite Psalms.  Verse 154 says,

“Defend my cause and redeem me; give me life as You promised.“

He is our defender.  Our protector.  Our redeemer. He promises us that He is bigger than all of our battles and He tells us that we don’t go through our battle alone.  So why do we do it? Why do we spin our wheels and flap our wings so unnecessarily?

When He asks us to trust Him.

I never ceased to be amazed at God’s amazing creation.

Especially when He speaks through it.

“Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent.  But even the hairs of your head have all been counted.  So don’t be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows.”  Matthew 10:28-31

**If you enjoyed this post, you might also like this one about my cardinal friends as well:

A Cardinal Reminder