The Dove

In March 2003 our house burned. On Thanksgiving Day we had our Thanksgiving dinner in a new house built on the same site. In the spring of 2004 Mr. and Mrs. Dove built their nest in a birch tree, not far from our new front porch. They didn’t know that the heat from the burning house had practically killed the tree, leaving only a tuft of leaves on a small branch facing my study window, without any leaves above it. We had a rainy spring and Mrs. Dove had an inadequate canopy as she sat on her nest. Nevertheless, she was faithful in waiting for her eggs to hatch. The rain came and the wind blew but she was always there. Eventually, some of the leaves fell off and both she and her nest got wet. Then one day I observed two babies and a faithful mother who sat in the rain sheltering them. When they had grown so big that the nest could hardly hold them, part of the nest gave way and fell to the ground. Good mother dove stood on the edge of the damaged nest, or else on a branch and did her best to shelter her babies. When they were about ready to leave the nest, one of them fell out and wandered about on the ground for a day or two. Then the other one and its mother left the tattered remnant of a nest. This good mother had endured a hard season, but she was faithful.

I watched these doves with great interest—and compassion. I thought, what a model this is for humans in this day of family disintegration, with homes falling apart and children falling out of their nests. I thought about my youthful rebellion and how I left home against my parents’ will to join the Navy in 1941. We are intelligent beings with understanding and reasoning powers, while other creatures of God live by instinct. I can imagine them looking down on us as an inferior species. Take the conversation between the robin and the sparrow for instance.
Said the robin to the sparrow, “I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings rush around and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin, “I don’t know but it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father such as cares for you and me.”
Or consider the monkeys talking about the “ornery human beings.” One of them said, “Yes, man descended, the ornery cuss, but he didn’t descend from us.”

Circumstances are hard on human “nests” also, but the greatest damage is done by carelessness and neglect. In the spirit of Ezekiel who said, “Cast away from you all the transgressions you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn and live” (Ezek. 18:31, 32). I ask parents, why do you neglect your children? Why can’t God’s highest creation, protect and preserve their homes like the dove cares for hers? And children, why do you grieve your parents and destroy the home they have provided for you? Don’t you know that God is asking you to cast away all your transgressions and get yourself a new heart and new spirit? Why will you die, O house of America? So turn and live.

Mr. and Mrs. Dove went on to build nests and care for their young during the following years. Many good fathers and mothers have done the same. Circumstances have been hard at times, yet they, like the doves, have been faithful. And they have been rewarded.