A Poem: The Farmer and The Bird
“Perhaps you have heard the story of the bird who was finding a place to nest.
A place neither too warm, nor frigidly cold, that was dry and protected him best.
Not easy to see from the sky or a tree that the wind couldn’t wrestle or vex.
So the bird flew about to try and find out where it might lay its head to rest.
Then from a far it spotted a farm with a pile of brush and debris.
Filled with glee the bird could see this was the place for his family.
Hay, sticks, and mud, it gathered and drug to the pile of brush and debris.
After laboring long, the nest was built strong, a home of comfort and rest.
But to his dismay, the very next day, along came the farmer to contest.
Grabbing a shovel, he began to pummel the nest until it was ruined and wrecked.
Discouraged, alarmed, but gladly unharmed, the bird would rebuild on the farm.
The pile of brush was simply too lush, so again there the nest would lay.
But again came the farmer with intention to harmer, with a rake in hand to attest.
How can this be, can the farmer not see that he’s ruining what clearly is best?
Though agitated and upset, the bird would not yet give up without a third try.
On the other side of the pile he built for a while, but again the farmer did see.
Disheartened he pondered, what’s wrong with this farmer, so hateful, so cruel to oppress!
But then later that night, quite vivid and bright, the pile was ablaze with heat.
The bird realized then, why the farmer stopped him, as he knew how unsafe it would be.”
Like the bird who questioned the intentions of the farmer, Christians often question the intentions of God. Why would He let this happen to me? Doesn’t He care? But the Bible tells us He does care—deeply. In fact, God is using the trials and troubles we face to both protect us from an ever greater trouble and bring us an infinite good that we cannot even comprehend. In the book of Romans, Paul tells us that all things work together for good for those who love God—which includes our trials and troubles. But sometimes, like the bird, we are so focused on our present troubles that it seems unfathomable they could actually be working towards our greater good—this is where trust comes in.
Why should we believe that God really does care about our trials and troubles? Because He proved it once and for all 2,000 years ago on the cross where He bled and died for us. God personally entered into our trials and troubles by being born to die so that we might one day live free from suffering, sin and death. How? By turning from our sin and trusting Him—which is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. For followers of Jesus, we trust that God is using our trials and troubles for an amazing good—for “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”(1 Corinthians 2:9).
