caring for doves, part 1

I am officially in love..

Several months ago, I was going through a relatively hard time over some things...

I emailed a friend and she gave me an beautiful analogy...

She said, "Rachelle, struggling is like walking in the desert..She said struggles are like Noah, in the  boat, sending out the doves..she said..while we are waiting for the branch..we often wonder if God has forgotten us...but, she told me,  "Rachelle, your branch will come"..

Well, today my branch came in the form of a tiny nest...branches stacked on on top of the other....and wrapped inside, as a gift from God, were two tiny doves..
My coworker spotted them on the bottom of a railcar. We figured that since the car had been moved and would probably be shipped out of the plant soon, it would be best to take them down and care for them..

So, we did..

I put them and their cozy little nest in a box, .. I then, put them under a lamp to keep them warm...
I secured a tiny dropper from our lab department..and then I gave them some water.

A coworker was telling me that if we hadn't rescued the birds, they probably would have been eaten by a racoon or some other animal..

Right now, they are sleeping soundly..and I can honestly say.. I love these two baby doves.
 I called my neighbor. She happens to take care of lost and wounded birds...she agreed to care for the birds.

I keep thinking of the verse that says..."Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:26 ...

I think about how God must have loved these birds so much...that he let them be found before being shipped off to another state via railcar ... .before being eaten by wild animals...
He loves them so much that He must have somehow known that they would be fed..with tiny droppers.and taken care of by kind and loving neighbors...

God loves those baby birds.. Imagine, just for a moment, how much more He loves you...
It's humbling to think about...

If only we could love another with that immense kind of love...
Yesterday, I was reading all sorts of horrific tales in the news.. more stories of hatred and violence and mothers killing their own kids... one mother was so high on marijuana that she forgot that she put her five month old baby, still strapped in his car seat, on top of her car. She drove off, not realizing that he was on top of the car.  He was found in the middle of an intersection. ....unharmed... (thank Jesus!)
...

I was thinking about the nine months we spend inside of the womb...growing and forming... our bodies are so complex and intricate. Even our tiny little fingernails are coded with stands of dna.. our tiny little bodies form according to amazing and wonderous specifications...I think about how, as babies, we are so perfectly innocent.....
..and then we grow up...we experience this roller coaster called life..we experience hurts and frustrations..we struggle....but all the while, God is calling us back to that same perfect innocence..

"come to me as children," He says..

Children are forgiving. Children are trusting...Children somehow recognize the precarious and precious thing we call " Life.."
Children are loving..

as adults, don't we often become snide..and rude..and greedy...? Don't we often fail to see the work it took to form another human being?  The handiwork of God?
Every time we fail to forgive or fail to offer kindness, aren't we in a sense spitting in the face of God's very creation?
Love... "the greatest of these is love.."
If we don't have that...then we are lost and doomed... we are like birds that need rescuing..
only we have a Father..and He loves us very much..

if you take nothing more from this post...just remember..God loves you... He gave me an immense love and concern for two tiny little  birds. He loves them more than I do.. and He loves us even more than  that...