The other day, my wife was on a walk with the dog. Nearing the end of the walk, the dog seemed unusually interested in the trunk of a car. Her mind started thinking the worst when an injured bird leaped out from its hiding place. Her immediate thought was to help, but she knew I wasn’t as open to the idea of an injured bird coming into the house.
A year earlier, a bird struck our window and fell into the window well. My wife had rescued the bird and placed it into a box. I wasn’t happy because of all the diseases birds carry, and when I got home, the bird flew off the second I released it from the box. All of this played into my wife deciding not to pick up the bird and take it home. But, as if someone heard the hesitation, a group of birds began attacking the injured bird. My wife could watch no longer and came to the birds rescue.
She spent the entire day digging in the mud for worms and changing water in and out for the injured creature. She kept it safe in the dog kennel, keeping to safe from children, and dogs peeked interest. Our daughter even named the bird Bella. Once we took it outside to see if perhaps it could fly, it was clearly too injured, and we returned it to the kennel.
This morning, we took it to a wild animal shelter where they we be able to assist in its recovery and hopful return to the wild.
From my wifes side of the story, she went out of her way to make sure that bird was fed and protected. You can see her sweet heart making sure the creature felt as safe as possible despite being in a foreign cage. Yet, as we spoke, we thought about how little the creature probably understood. From the birds perspective, it had been struck by a car. After realizing it couldn’t fly, it hid and was discovered by a dog, a terrible creature that roared and chased them all the time.
Luckily, the dog was being pulled by a human who moved it along, but the second Bella felt safe again, a group of birds attacked. Suddenly, she’s swooped up and caught in two large hands where she can’t escape. She’s taken into the human lair and forced into a cage where she’s given worms and water. For a robin, with an average lifespan of two to fourteen years, the hours in a kennels felt like days. Without the ability to wander in the wild, the poor Bella had to wait as hours passed till her human capture finally brought worms.
After what felt like months, Bella had her first chance to breathe outside air. This was her moment to escape. The moment the human approaches, she makes a break for it. She manages to get under the fence and is finally free again, except her wing is still injured. Within moments, she’s in the grasp of the human who returns her to her prison. Bella stars off into the darkness, wondering if she will ever return to the wild. Will she ever be free again?
We hope Bella will be free once more after healing. How much like Bella are we? Sometimes, we don’t understand the bigger plan. Sometimes, we’re caught up in a horrible situation thinking everything is going downhill not realizing theirs a bigger purpose to our current situation and perhaps, without knowing it, we are being rescued from a much worse fate.
Jacob Gittins 