Who Gets the Birdhouse--or the Status--Bluebirds or Sparrows?

Today just as we were starting school, a pair of bluebirds came to check out one of the birdhouses Timmy had just put up.

The mama bird sat first on one side of the fence, and then on the other,

and then checked out the inside of the birdhouse.

But suddenly a pair of sparrows flew up and there was a bit of a fight between the bluebirds and the sparrows. 

You can only see the blur of the sparrow's wings as it fights off the papa bluebird.

Mr. Bluebird might have a fancy blue suit and a fine perch on the fence post,

but can he stand up to the simple brown sparrow who needs a safe place for his family?

 Well, the naturally brown birdhouse did not seem to suit, so the sparrows checked out the barn red birdhouse!

Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow aren't so simple after all.  Perhaps, due to their plain brown clothes,
they feel they need the fanciest house on the block so they can have at least something to show off.

 Hopefully Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird and Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow will work out their differences and both find good nesting places for their families.
The Finch family has already built several nests in the fir tree out front, from which they checked out the hummingbird feeder a few days ago!




 but bluebirds prefer birdhouses on fence posts rather than hidden in trees, and not too close to other birds.

 Perhaps it's a sort of status symbol--getting to perch in a birdhouse made and watched by humans instead of building one's own hidden nest quietly under the eye of God.

How concerned are we with the praise of man rather than the praise that comes from God alone?

How content are we to work hour after hour where there is no thanks and no status,

no honor and no platform,

 no fencepost for our bright,  fashionable suits, 

and nothing fancy to show for our work?

Just a lot of red marks on school papers, patient moments of reworking wrong answers with the students, listing jobs and projects for non-school hours, coming up with menus,

folding laundry, picking up trash strewn by hopeless puppies--and kids. 
 No bells and whistles when we make quiet and unattended sacrifices day after day, gulping back the impatient words we'd like to say when we are overwhelmed--and sometimes failing to get them gulped down soon enough?

No statues sculpted for our glory or memory like this one of the founder of Colorado Springs in front of the blanket of fog cloaking Pikes Peak one beautiful morning last week.

When  our plain brown eggs are in a plain brown basket from the goodwill...

 instead of in that fancy, bright red, newly remodeled basket from the Christmas shop--

can we surrender our honor and our usefulness to God in simplicity of faith?
Can we live in joy and peace and contentment,
with the honor that comes only from Him?
Lord, keep my heart sweet when I feel like a piece of well-worn and already much-used clothing from the goodwill instead of something fair and fashionable.
Make me to know that  in Your sight the bluebirds, and the finches, and the sparrows
are all cared for equally.

And under Your wings You have a safe nesting place for each of us!