The House Finch

A few weeks ago, I (Sara) woke up and walked out into the kitchen to grab my breakfast (our kitchen is connected to our living room which has a gas fireplace). As I poured my daily bowl of cereal, I heard some rustling of feathers that was coming from the fireplace... but I honestly thought it was coming from up in the chimney. Every now and then, I would hear a little "tweet tweet" and so my immediate thought was that we had birds making a nest in the chimney. "Silly birds," I thought. "Now how are we going to evict them?! There is no way to get up on our roof and walk over and take the nest out of the chimney!"

I wandered upstairs for my daily e-mail check and heard the same rustling sound. The sound came and went, and naturally, I assumed that the bird who was building a nest had gone to find more twigs and stuffing during the times there was silence. No... But something was strange. I was sitting at the computer in our loft which overlooks our living room and something just told me that I should look more closely at the fireplace. I really do think it was the voice of God that I heard because as I stared intently at the fireplace, I saw something poke out from below it! There is a little vent under the fire box and something small had just poked out for a brief second and went back in! Instantly, I knew what it was.

I sat my bowl of cereal down and ran downstairs. I examined the vent area and saw that it could be removed with a standard screwdriver, so I ran out in the garage and grabbed the first one I saw in Brian's toolbox. With my screwdriver (and a pair of leather gloves) in hand, I ran back in and pried the vent cover off to find a very frightened little finch stuck under the fireplace!! She was terrified! (I know it was a female now after doing a little research on the marking differences between the males and the females. It was a learning experience for me!) She was so terrified that she was frozen in fear, so the best thing I thought to do was to simply let her be and let her wander out on her own. Her poor little feathers were so ruffled! As I watched from a distance, I saw her hop out from the dark and scary place into the bright living room.

Unfortunately, she found a big window that cannot be opened in our living room and was absolutely convinced that that was the way out. Over and over again she slammed her poor little body in to the glass - when all along there was the big, huge patio door that was totally opened for her RIGHT BELOW the window where she sat perched and frustrated. She could hear her friends outside chirping away, and she even returned their chirping. She sounded so forlorn. I felt so sad for her!

Finally, after almost an hour of flying throughout the house (which must have seemed like an eternity for this poor little finch!), she found a window upstairs that I was able to remove the screen for her and she flew out. Whew! What a little ordeal for this poor little creature.

I think I've seen her once or twice getting a drink from the fountain on our patio that Brian built. I'm glad she is okay!

While I was trying to gently guide her down the patio door with the end of my broom while she sat perched on that big window's sill, it reminded me of how God sometimes tries to gently guide us in the direction that we should go - but we are so convinced that we know better than He does (like she thought the window WAS the way out of her crisis!). The open door may be very near to us, but we are sometimes too stubborn to trust His guidance. It broke my heart every time I heard her hit the glass and try to fly outside; similarly, I am sure it hurts God to see us suffer unnecessarily - especially when He loves us so much and wants what is best for us! Just like how I wanted that little bird to be able to spread her wings and find her friends and play outside, God wants us to be happy.

Anyway, what a little ordeal! I'm so glad that I could be home to rescue the little house finch! (That really is what the name of the bird is... a "house finch" - even though they liveoutside! haha). We called the repair man and had them put a screen around the top part of the chimney so no more little birdies can fly in and get trapped under the fireplace! :)