Dickie Birds

Birders have an endearing term for those small common birds that flit and twitter in the brush and on low branches in the woods, dickie birds. These are the birds encountered on any and every trip into the field, chickadee, titmouse, nuthatch, and goldfinch being the most common. Dickie birds are so common that they are easily taken for granted. Many times when I make a list for the day I have to stop and think hard to remember if I actually encountered any dickie birds that day. While I find it hard to believe that there were none, I often cannot specifically remember one.

Although Jesus didn’t use the term, he was certainly talking about dickie birds when he asked the rhetorical question, “are not two sparrows sold for a penny?”(Matthew 10:29) He was not talking about birds that were being sold for sacrifice in the temple; they must have been for eating. A sparrow could not have provided very much meat, and at less than a penny they were nearly worthless. Interestingly, the very species that Jesus spoke of is likely the common, and pesky, sparrow that we know in our cities, the House Sparrow, passer domesticus. So this is one ancient metaphor that translates well to our time. Consider how easy it is to overlook a sparrow. Some day just try counting how many House Sparrows you see. I’m sure that you will be surprised at how many there are around you that you never noticed before. Yet, Jesus assures us, not one of these tiny creatures goes unnoticed by God. Indeed, every single hair on your head is counted! That is the nature of this God we worship. The logic is that if God cares for such small things, insignificant to and overlooked by us, then God’s care for each of us must be so incredibly great.

The corollary to this message is that since we are so loved by God we are free to be like God in showing the same compassion to others, even those (indeed, especially those) who are the least.