Our Little Thanksgiving Bird

'Tis was thanksgiving morning and all was quite around the Jones home. Mama was feeding baby some breakfast and the dog was lazily laying in her bed, snoring. When suddenly, mama heard some strange noises coming from the woodburning stove pipe and the dog's ears perked up.

It sounded like little feet kicking or little paws scratching. Puzzled, mama thought "perhaps it's just something stuck there" and continued on with the breakfast feeding. But the noise continued, on and off, until she thought, perhaps this was a small animal, and it had to be rescued out of the pipe.

When papa came downstairs for breakfast she mentioned this to him, and he kind of shrugged it off "there is no way a bird could fit through that small opening in the chimney" but decided to open the flue just to make sure there was nothing in there.
He slowly turned the handle and sure enough, "swoosh" a little something fell right into the ashes. A small and frightened blackbird sat there as he looked into their puzzled eyes. Papa was incredulous as mama said "I thought it was a bird! Look at the poor little thing!"

It was not clear what the best way to proceed was, as they feared that upon opening the door to the stove the little one would just fly out into the house desperately seeking a way out. And that's exactly what happened, until the front door was opened and the little blackbird found his way out to freedom, on that sunny thanksgiving morning.

The greatest loss

Yesterday I was reading my friend Greg's blog (www.gregshead.net) about how his baby girl loves being noticed, and the perhaps innate need we humans have to be paid attention to by others. I commented that I certainly could relate, to having the need to be noticed, listened to, in general, to be loved, and I certainly agreed that children, even as babies, revel in being noticed by others.

Then today I was watching TV, again the show where the main character, a grown woman with her own child, lives in her mother's house after her divorce. As I said in my previous post "My Mom" many of the most entertaining and moving scenes happen when the mother and daughter are together. Today's episode was no different. The mother was talking about the children she gets to see in her profession, abused, battered, emotionally wounded, and as she remembers the "crazy" things she used to do for her daughter when she was growing up, she realizes, these abused children don't have that. They don't have someone to do crazy things for them, out of love for them, she sums it up like this:

"Perhaps their greatest loss is not having someone who will abandon common sense and dignity on their behalf."

I think that is so true! Children need to be noticed, certainly. They also need someone whose love is so overwhelming they will sometimes temporarily abandon common sense and dignity on their behalf. Perhaps when society labels them "weird" for being home schooled, or when their faith clashes with the culture we live in, or when the child for some reason is just "different". They need someone who won't mind being thought a fool to stand up for them, to be strong for them, to abandon "common sense and dignity" if only temporarily.

I didn't have that. My parents were definitely willing to abandon common sense and dignity, not on my behalf, but rather on their own behalf, no matter what that meant for us, their children. HOW VERY SAD.
Yet today I have a Father who notices me, and who went to crazy lengths to stand up for me, so I want to live in that overwhelming love. And I want my son to have someone who will teach him about that love, and put aside their own gain and reputation for his sake.
Out of pure love for him.
And I want that someone to be me.