one of these things is not like the other

Do you remember that song from Sesame Street? "One of these things is not like the other...one of these things just doesn't belong?" That little song went through my head when I discovered the latest house finch nest in my upstairs window box. When I came home from work last night, I hit the button for the garage door, and when I did, I saw the mama finch fly out of the window box. So I went upstairs to check, and sure enough, they had built another nest up there and had laid 3 eggs. [For those of you who don't know, we had another house finch nest earlier in the spring with 5 bitty babies named Do, Re, Mi, Fa and So.]

But as I was looking at the nest and being scolded from a nearby tree by the mama finch, there was one egg that was bigger and more speckled than the other two. Hmmmm. So, I emailed a picture of the nest to my brother & sis-in-law in Indiana to get their opinion. Recently, they had told me about cowbirds and I wanted to see if the larger egg was a cowbird egg...and they confirmed that it was.

The cowbird is kind of the shiftless Bernie Madoff of the bird world. Instead of building their own nests, incubating their own eggs and raising their own nestlings, cowbirds have a different breeding strategy. Cowbird females use other bird species as hosts -- laying their eggs in the nests of other bird species and relying on these hosts to incubate and raise their chicks. That's pretty creepy, huh. What usually happens is that the cowbird chick ends up consuming all the food and growing so big that eventually the other baby birds in the nest will die.

So, that started me thinking about the similarity between the cowbird and my own life. [Go with me here...hopefully you aren't picturing me laying eggs in other peoples yards...if so, feel free to poke your minds eye out.] Anyhoo, there are things that I allow in my head and in my heart, that seem innocent enough at the time. But when allowed to incubate and grow, they eventually take over, crowding out the good things and eventually ending in death...not literal death, but death in terms of a destructive behavior like bitterness or unforgiveness...which eventually causes death to my soul. This scripture came to mind...

Colossians 3: 5-14 [NIV]

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

¹²Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

So tonight, when Keith gets home from work, we're going to evict the cowbird egg from the finch nest. It seems like a cruel thing to do, and the mama finch will not understand, but it's the best thing to do for the finch family. Which reminds me of another another spiritual lesson, that will be saved for another day.

I seem to be learning alot of things from birds lately...

PS/The white stuff in the nest looks like lint from a dryer vent. It's masterfully woven into the lining of the nest. It just cracks me up.