There’s a hole in the wall of my apartment. It’s supposed to be there, and it’s covered. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, I think it might have been for a dryer at one point? Maybe. The reason I’m telling you about this hole is because a little bird family has started building a nest in it, and I don’t think I could possibly be more excited.
I love the little bird family. Like a lot. We whistle back and forth to each other through the hole. I tap on the cover, and they peck back. They sing along when I play music. When the weather is nice, I leave the door open and whistle to them from the balcony. They fly away every time they see me, but I’m working on that. My theory is that they think I’m a bird when we’re communicating through the hole in the wall, but they don’t realize the friend in the wall is the same friend on the balcony…I just really want to be their friend.
I know it’s kind of silly, but I have so much fun playing with them. They’re little and sweet and they sing beautiful songs. I leave seeds out for them (that they don’t eat), I run to them when they start chirping, and my heart bursts every time they whistle back to me.
I think the reason I care about them so much is because Jesus is using them to show me how he cares for me. He’s reminding me that the love I have inside me is the love he has for me, the love he gives to me abundantly. He loves to provide for me, even when I don’t take it. He runs to me when I call, and his heart bursts when I respond to the songs he sings over me. He delights in my existence, and he smiles so big when I acknowledge him. Sometimes I don’t recognize Jesus on the balcony as the same Jesus who sings to me through the hole in the wall. Sometimes I fly away. But he keeps singing and drawing me back in, reminding me that he loves and adores me. He opens the door and he listens to my songs and he makes his heart my home.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:16-19
