His Eye Is On The Sparrow

Quite literally. Two days ago my children found two sparrow chicks in our backyard. I was a little nervous at first, knowing this might end in death. However, we used it as an opportunity to teach our daughter a very important lesson. After finding out they were fledglings, we decided to keep them safe from the neighborhood cats. We kept them overnight in our storage room and fed them some fruit. The next day we awoke to find Nathan and Lily alive and well. My daughter and son fed them some more fruit and watched to see what would happen. Nathan flew away that afternoon and is doing fine. My daughter was a little sad to see him leave, but was happy Lily was still with us. Lily was a little slower to pick up the art of flying so she stayed with us one more night. After a meal of meal worms and fruit, she slept peacefully in our storage room. Today she was alive and well and complaining of hunger. We gave her one final meal of fruit and she was off to see the world. We had to help her a little, but she is off and flying and doing her bird thing. My daughter had a hard time letting her struggle with flying, she wanted to help her and move her and feed her and keep her. I explained to her that birds do better in the sky. The more we help them, the less they are able to survive on their own. She didn't agree, but trusted that I knew what I was talking about. As she watched Lily "leave the nest" I congratulated her, "Good job Mama bird."