a sparrow

We went to the park this morning to play. As we were leaving (me getting Adam in the car, telling Emma to get in as she's ignoring me & playing around under the tree in front of the car) Emma says, "Mommy come look at this!"

First instinct: "No, come get in the car NOW!"

... But instead, I decided to be a nicer mommy and indulge her briefly.

"Okay, I'm coming." Walk over, "What is it Emma?"
E: "What is that?"
M: "Oh my goodness, it's a baby bird!!"

Yeah, as in like a 2-day old baby sparrow! *You can't see it very good because I'd covered it with some dry grass to help it stay warm.* Not joking, this thing was about an inch long, maybe an inch & a half. It had fallen out of its nest up near the top of the tree. I was totally dying, it was so sad!! I was racking my brain for what I could do to help, somehow get the baby back into the nest. Emma kept suggesting we take the birdie home and build it a new nest, so that we could take care of it.  hehe

So I ran the kids home to Colbs, and then grabbed the ladder and headed back to the park. After a while of trying, I still was about a foot short of reaching the nest; luckily, a lady who was just leaving with her girls caught sight of the strange woman scaling a tree in a public park, and it ended up that she'd rescued baby birds before and knew how to take care of it. So the birdie got to go home with her, hopefully to grow big & strong. I hope.

Later, after an evening at the rodeo with the Harmons, Emma asked in the car -

E: "Mommy, why did I find the baby birdie?" ~~ She frequently asks kinda strange questions like that, but tonight I thought it was actually pretty poignant.
M: "Well Emma, I think today when that birdie fell out of the nest, Heavenly Father needed somebody to find it and help it. Maybe he helped you to it see it, so that we could find the birdie a new home."
E: "yeah."

She was playing a game on the phone, so I don't know if it really meant much to her at the time; but it sure did to me. Hopefully someone out there knows where I'm going with this -

His eye, truly, is on the sparrow. And even my crazy little Emma can be His helper.

So tonight, I'm feeling thankful for the little things, that are really so much more.