Singing in the Dark

A bird sang a song.

Through an open window that wasn’t supposed to be able to open. Opened because of an air conditioning unit that wasn’t working.

A bird sang…

Over the roar of trucks rushing by through the night on the highway outside. Over my husband snoring softly in a recliner next to my hospital bed. Over the muffled footsteps and conversations of the night shift nurses outside my door.

Over the noise of the worries in my head. Worries about the teeny tiny baby that had been growing inside me for only two or three months. Worries about the baby’s health. Worries about my health. Worries that kept me awake.

A bird sang…and in the song, God spoke.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered; do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:7-8)

The bird sang again…and God spoke again. This time through another song.

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,

Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,

When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,

For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

(His Eye is On the Sparrow, D. Martin)

Me? Sing? In the midst of all this? And sing…because I’m happy?

How in the world? Why in the world?

Because…He watches me. And He is my portion. And I am more valuable to Him than many sparrows…unforgotten to Him.

I had no way of knowing that that night was just the beginning of six long months…six months of lots of health problems and lots of questions and not many answers. Six months of being frustratingly limited by health. Six long months of learning to trust Him…enough to sing.

I didn’t know it was just the beginning…but He did. He knew I needed to hear the bird’s song. So He put me in the hospital room with the broken air conditioning unit and the broken window. He woke me up at 4 am and wouldn’t let me fall back to sleep. And He sent a bird by my window.

To sing.

Isn’t He good?