{"id":1515,"date":"2020-04-15T14:08:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T14:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=1515"},"modified":"2020-04-15T14:08:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T14:08:32","slug":"birds-and-covid19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html","title":{"rendered":"Birds and COVID 19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is Spring! And the birds are singing as they claim and protect their territory as they nest. <\/p>\n<p>I have a Cardinal, who for the past 5 weeks, has banged himself against my sunroom window, my kitchen window, my living room window and my study window. The cat at first thought this was exciting but now has grown bored by it!<\/p>\n<p>Outside my front door I have a tall shrub &#8211; not sure what it is &#8211; but a small house finch built a nest there. I became aware of it when each time I&#8217;d step outside to get the mail, the mother bird flew out. One day I peeked in and saw the nest and 4 eggs. The next day, I saw 5 eggs. <\/p>\n<p>She sat on them faithfully. Each day I&#8217;d check on their progress &#8211; careful not to disturb her. And one day I saw 3 baby birds &#8211; naked and ugly! Then two more hatched. I was concerned how they&#8217;d all fit in that tiny nest as they grew. I watched them grow and develop beaks, real feathers&#8230; It was fun.<\/p>\n<p>Then we had a terribly windy day. And I noticed the nest had pitched over. Three baby birds were cleaning tightly to the shrub branch. One was on the ground beneath.<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t know what happened to the other. <\/p>\n<p>I continued to watch. Then I noticed yesterday, all were gone. Just the empty nest was there. It made me sad. But maybe they had grown enough to fly off on their own. <\/p>\n<p>But in all of this process I could help but think of Jesus&#8217; words in Matthew&#8217;s Gospel: &#8220;Are not too sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.&#8221; (Mt. 10:29) and &#8220;Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?&#8221; (Mt. 6:26)<\/p>\n<p>With the COVID 19 there is much anxiety, fear, worry. I understand that. There is much uncertainty. The one certainty we have is that God is in control &#8211; this did not take Him by surprise. He is on His throne. He loves us &#8211; that&#8217;s what Good Friday was about &#8211; &#8220;God so loved that He gave&#8230;&#8221; He has a plan. And we can trust Him &#8211; totally. Is it easy? No. Does it come automatically? No. Do we feel it all the time? No. That&#8217;s why it is called faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is Spring! And the birds are singing as they claim and protect their territory as they nest. I have a Cardinal, who for the past 5 weeks, has banged himself against my sunroom window, my kitchen window, my living room window and my study window. The cat at first thought this was exciting but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,44,45,88,29,511],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issues-in-the-news","category-hope","category-spring","category-uncertainty","category-unexpected-storms-of-life","category-virus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Birds and COVID 19 - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birds and COVID 19 - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is Spring! And the birds are singing as they claim and protect their territory as they nest. I have a Cardinal, who for the past 5 weeks, has banged himself against my sunroom window, my kitchen window, my living room window and my study window. The cat at first thought this was exciting but&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-15T14:08:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Birds and COVID 19 - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Birds and COVID 19 - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"It is Spring! And the birds are singing as they claim and protect their territory as they nest. I have a Cardinal, who for the past 5 weeks, has banged himself against my sunroom window, my kitchen window, my living room window and my study window. The cat at first thought this was exciting but&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html","og_site_name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","article_published_time":"2020-04-15T14:08:32+00:00","author":"Ruth Graham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html","name":"Birds and COVID 19 - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-04-15T14:08:32+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-15T14:08:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/04\/birds-and-covid19.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Birds and COVID 19"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/","name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Ruth Graham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975","name":"Ruth Graham","description":"\u201cTransparent\u201d is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham. No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her life Bible verse is John 1:16.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ruthgrahamministries.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/author\/rgraham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1524,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}