Little Bird

from 04.05.17

Little Bird,

Your broken body interrupted my morning walk today. I had to stop and look at you because your death felt like an injustice--why would such an innocent creature be allowed to fall into the crushing pavement, into the oblivion of the forgotten, whose lives no one remembers?

Little wings, did you know that 20 children and 52 adults fell to the ground in Syria yesterday? They lay "writhing, choking, gasping, foaming," poisoned from the inside out by evil men. Like you, not many people watched them die, and no one will remember them in a few short weeks.

Little heart, did you know that at the end of many days I fall to my bed and feel unremembered? That's why I stopped to cry for you this morning—I was really crying for myself and for a humanity that lies shattered on the earth.

In chapel today, we sang about our God who is a great Savior, and you swooped into my mind, perching there with every doubt I have. But, little bird, did you know that Jesus' very own words say that you did not "fall to the ground outside your Father's care"? That those Syrian children were in God's care as they died? That I can never escape His love? I think you were put there to remind me, little bird. To remind me that suffering is never unseen, injustice is never ignored, death is never deserted. And that one day, every redeemed soul with broken wings will fly again.