From Painting Birds to Bird Mom

How did I go from painting a series of birds to being a bird mom? To be honest, I really do not know.

 Let me backup a bit for all my new friends.  I have a free service that I called Print of the Month. This service is now Print of the Quarter since I had to change it to quarterly prints. Then it was each month, I sent out a digital print that you can download and print. It is a wonderful way to switch out seasonal art every month (now quarter).  Last year’s theme was Beautiful Birds. I painted birds that you would see in your back yard except for the two parakeets.

 

Did that collection inspire me to become a bird mom? No… yes… maybe?

 One Sunday while driving home from church we (husband and I) found ourselves talking about birds. I cannot recall exactly what started the conversation, but it could have sparked from a cute bird TikTok as I tend to watch funny TicTok videos while riding in the car. We talked about pet birds and which variety we thought we would like best. After a process of elimination of the most common pet birds, we agreed that Finch our favorite since they are low maintenance and pretty quiet. Fast forward to the following day and we were standing in our local pet store buying two of the sweetest little finch birds.

  

We found the perfect spot in front of the window in our den where the morning sun comes in.

  

We intentionally bought one male and one female because we wanted to witness the nest building, egg laying, chick hatching, and care giving process, and guess what? Within two weeks of being bird parents, we realized we were going to be bird grandparents.

  

 

I tried to take photos each day during the 4-6 day laying period, but after egg four, mom and dad began sitting on the eggs preventing me from seeing and photographing them. You can see below the photos I was able to capture. It was difficult getting good photos as I hand to work around the cage so do not judge my blurry photos m’kay?

  

 

Watching these two little birds work together building their home, alternating sitting on the eggs, and now feeding their babies has been a beautiful lesson about how perfectly God’s plan and order is. Shouldn’t every marriage be an example of teamwork? The male does not rule the female, but work as partners doing the roles that they were created to do. The male brought the nesting materials to the bird house and the female shaped it into a comfortable nest. The male showed himself as a provider while the female showed herself as a homemaker…each happy to do their part for their family.

  

 

The chicks started hatching this week, and I have found myself sitting a little longer in the chair by their cage sipping coffee. I find it to be a wonderful time to ponder about my day, but also about deeper things like my relationship with Christ, our world and what is happening around us, and how I can be a light in a dim world. These little birds remind me to lay all my cares at the feet of Jesus and trust him because he tells us that he cares for the little birds, and if he cares for them then how much more will he care for us. Things are happening in our world that we do not always understand, but God does not want us living in fear. He has promised to care for us and to never leave us (Hebrews 13:5).

My friend, if you are being crushed by the weight on your shoulders, know that you do not have to bare that weight alone.  God is waiting for you to let go and let him carry them for you.

 

Blessings.