KC JONES | GUEST

My eight-year-old daughter was recently given a quail. That’s right. She was gifted a live bird which typically requires a flock to thrive, among other necessities. It would not be a stretch to say I was unprepared mentally or physically for this ordeal, but I was also not aware of the dramatic impact it would make on all our hearts, especially mine.

We serve a God of wonder. He is a God of great surprises and a God who lavishes on His children because He longs to do so. In the Scriptures, John exhorts his readers to, “see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1) John calls us to observe and take note of the love the Father pours out upon us because we are His children and because He is that good. This truth became even more real to me as the Lord opened my eyes to see more of the depth of His love in His bringing us the gift of this little bird.

A Delightful Gift

It all began when my Malawian friend, who raises quail, brought my child the bird after we had tasted the delicious eggs she gave our family. Our daughter, upon initially seeing a picture of one of my friend’s baby quail chicks became instantly enamored and so my friend brought her one of her own. Even this was a blessing from the Lord in that He got me out of my own way to allow this little chick to enter our lives. If I had known the gift was coming, I might have resisted it.

My daughter instantly bonded with the bird (naming her Zoey) and her feathered baby, in turn, imprinted on her. Our children became her “flock”, and my eight-year-old tended to Zoey with the most delicate and thoughtful care. Even my husband noted after the first week how this little creature had changed our family for the better. We researched quail habits and dietary needs. We helped one another provide for Zoey; we considered what she might need and sacrificed for her in both small and large ways. In essence, our focus as a whole family had shifted to this little chick and how to love her well. It did not take much for us to make the shift. It was our desire, our privilege, our delight.

A Father’s Love

During that time, I often thought about how a parent loves his or her child; how, even though it requires great pain and suffering to bring a baby into the world, it is a choice that most gladly make because they want to share their love with their own. In essence, they long to lavish love upon their children. They do so not because of what their baby will do for them, but what they want to give to their baby.

When God created the world, He chose to make man in His own image that He might have a relationship with him. He made both male and female, He blessed them, and then He gave them dominion over the earth and instructed them to be fruitful and fill the earth, honoring their beings with design and purpose (Gen. 1:27-28). God not only formed man and woman to be a blessing to Him, He sought to be a blessing to them even when they sinned against Him and rejected His goodness. The entirety of Scripture is about the glory of God and His great love for His children. We are told even in terms Zoey could understand in the gospel of Luke, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Luke 13:34b). His all-encompassing, pursuing love was and is enough to satisfy us completely. Yet, as Adam and Eve rejected God’s promises and disobeyed Him in the Garden of Eden, so we have also done. We have doubted the love of God and listened to the serpent sow seeds of suspicion into our hearts. Does God really love me? Are His laws given for my own good? Does He really know what is best for me? These questions and others like them precipitate a desire in us to run from God. We convince ourselves that He could not possibly love us that much, and we corrupt the narrative, resisting Him altogether.

Grace for Runaways

In a way, Zoey did the same thing. When she was in our hands, she would nestle down and shut her eyes. Her heart would slow, and she would rest, but the moment she was released, she would run, darting here and there, following her instincts to hide, to get away, to disappear. Zoey was a master at Hide and Seek, but if she got too far, our family would look for her, call out to her, pursue her, and bring her home—not unlike the Father does for us. It did not feel like an imposition to any of us because we wanted her found. We wanted to bring her back so that we might continue to love her well. One day, just a few weeks later, Zoey won at her favorite game. She hid so well, her little mistress could not find her again. We searched and searched, longing for her to return. We prayed quietly and aloud. We pleaded with the Lord to bring her back, but our precious time with Zoey had ended. In spite of all the sorrow and loss, my daughter approached me with the faith only a child could muster. She knew God was taking care of Zoey better than she could and that she could trust Him.

I couldn’t help but reflect on the beautiful passage from Isaiah which says, “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18). There are many opportunities in life where we see truths about God in the world around us. What would it look like for us to live as if we believed it? It would probably look like a tiny, little bird, instead of running in fear and failure, returning home to be at rest.

Photo by Dana Davis on Unsplash