“Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.” Psalm 84:33Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. (Psalm 84:3)
We have been looking at birds’ eggs and some of the unusual nests built by birds in various parts of the world. With most nesting birds, the female picks the spot and starts to build the nest by herself. The male bird may show up later and not approve of his mate’s work and make her change it or do it over again. Or sometimes he will rearrange the work she has already done.
Many birds do not even make nests. In last week’s article we looked at the seabirds that lay their eggs on bare rocks. Others, like the royal tern, just make a slight bowl-shaped spot in the sand where one egg is laid fully exposed. Often thousands of terns do this as a group, with the sandy “nests” nearly touching each other. Penguins, flamingos and many other birds nest in similar huge groups. Their nests are close together, yet when each mother returns from gathering food, she knows which nest is hers.
The European cuckoo, too lazy to build her own nest, invades another bird’s while the owner is away. She knocks out one of the existing eggs and lays one of her own, which matches almost perfectly those already there. When the true mother returns, she is unaware of what has happened. When the little cuckoo eventually hatches, the true mother accepts it and raises it even though it doesn’t look like her own babies.
The softest nest of all is made by the eider duck in the maritime provinces of Canada. The mother duck plucks enough down from her own body to make a soft, warm, comfortable lining for her eggs and the ducklings that will eventually hatch.
An ornithologist once wrote, “How well suited the lining of a bird’s nest is, not only for the comfort of the young, but to keep the eggs from breaking. The tender and brittle eggs, which you can hardly carry in cotton, lie there without harm.”
Certainly the wonders of God’s creation are not hard to see in every phase of bird life. He looks after even the lowly sparrow as well as the more exotic birds for their whole life span. But King David, who wrote the opening Bible verse, was also thinking of the goodness of the Lord Jesus to the people of the earth when He invited them to let Him be their Shepherd and Saviour, with a promise not only for this life, but for the life hereafter. King David wrote, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:66Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. (Psalm 23:6)). If you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, you can also apply to yourself what King David wrote.
ML-07/04/2010