Lament for the Songbirds

God sees the little sparrow fall,
It meets His tender view;
If God so loves the little birds,
I know He loves me, too.
Refrain

He loves me, too, He loves me, too,
I know He loves me, too;
Because He loves the little things,
I know He loves me, too.

Last evening I drove along the street adjacent to the Waterfront Trail to pick up Ruth, my wife, from rowing. I looked over at one point and saw a Baltimore Oriole perched on a fence, between two Red-Winged Blackbirds. The sun illuminated the startling orange of the oriole, and the red and yellow epaulettes of the blackbirds. It was breath-takingly simple and beautiful.

Yesterday I saw a scroll on a news feed announcing that new research indicates one in eight bird species is endangered. The loss of habitat through human encroachment is affecting the creatures of the air we once took for granted. The sparrows seem to be doing okay, but there is no doubt that the songbird population is declining everywhere. In Europe they are hunted relentlessly for no reason other than sport. Take a look at this National Geographic piece by famed novelist Jonathan Franzen http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/songbird-migration/franzen-text

Jane Hilderman, a tweeter, commented that when she asked her 100-year-old grandmother what change had affected her most profoundly over a long lifetime her unexpected answer was the loss of songbirds.

The old chorus you see above is a paraphrase of Jesus' invitation, found in Matthew's gospel to "consider the birds of the air" in our search for wisdom and inner peace. There are many references to birds in the bible.Where will we turn when they are gone?

Are you a Bird Nerd? Does it disturb you that birds may be disappearing?