God Bless the Day I Found the Sparrow

CEBU, Philippines - When I was going through the pages of “The Gospel According to Luke,” the verse 12:6, struck me: “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one sparrow is forgotten by God.” 

I wrote in a poem: “Yet not one sparrow falls without His care, how much more mortal man, His kin creation?” Thus, discovering myself as one sparrow God has not forgotten, I was motivated to channel the sparrow message by way of writing. With that on mind, I tried to nudge at the hearts of others and to scatter across it insights and images as to how life’s blessedness should be appreciated and understood.

To this, I say, “God bless the day I found the sparrow.”

The sparrow is but just an insignificant bird that you see flying across the trees or perching on the rooftops or chirping in your garden. It is a small brown bird devoid of elegance of plumage or the magnificence of flight. It is a lowly common bird that is without the colors or bearings of other birds.

In our country, these little birds are found in our neighborhood and we call them “maya.” Our pet sellers place them inside simple wooden birdcages and market them cheap in the streets for the children play with. They are unlike the beautiful lovebirds that we keep in fancy birdcages as pet. They are so unimportant that we don’t notice them when we walk past them or when they fly past us.

A writer, Dave Egner, once cutely dubbed the sparrow as an “underbird,” describing them as “the little people of their world.” Obviously, these small, poor, ordinary sparrows are the low-ranking members of their domain. Certainly, they’d place nowhere when compared to their top-gun counterparts in the avian world.

Imagine the majestic eagles, falcons and hawks; they are so elegant in poise and so resplendent in flight that your eyes followed them till they are out of sight. Imagine the colorful parrots, parakeets and macaws; they are so beautiful, adorable and alluring that you can’t take your eyes off them. Thus, reflecting on this, do we give as much attention and admiration to the neglected inferior sparrows?

We do, but only at instances, as in when they appear on the window sills, or when they swoop down into the garden picking worms, or when they tweet on the tree branches.    Don’t we just walk away when we notice a collapsed sparrow or a broken-winged one in the yard or by the bushes? Chances are we proceed on our way, though feeling pathetic for the tiny creature.

Ever since I found the sparrow, part of my morning prayer goes like, “Thank You for the birds chirping… for the beautiful plants, trees, flowers and garden…” The “maya” birds are now part of my life. They live in a shared domain that is my garden. I miss them when they are away. Free as a bird, so to speak, they are often out somewhere, making their rounds, doing their particulars. They have peculiar habits and behaviors, feelings and attitudes of their own, too. A bird watcher knows.

We should not lose the lesson that we learned of the sparrow.    We know that when a sparrow falls to the ground, it registers the faintest thud, one that is hardly heard. We are never aware of it unless perhaps the poor bird drops in front of us. But God knows and takes care of every sparrow, including the fallen ones, despite how frail, puny and trifling they are.

Certainly, God does not see the sparrow as negligible or “underbird.” He values it just like any of the most mighty, distinct and elite of birds.    That goes with us human beings, too, whether we are of the eagle lordship or of the small fry identity. Just remember that in the eyes of God “the little people of our world” are also His beautiful, important, precious children.

If not one sparrow is forgotten by God, how could He miss anyone of us?