Eye on the Sparrow.

Recently my oldest child had an opportunity to interview and present an award to a well-known author and illustrator at the TLA Conference in Houston this last week. It was a pretty unique experience for us country folk and sometimes I found it pretty funny that there was so much fanfare and amplification for a children’s book but I guess different people get excited about different things. We had what I guess you would call an intimate breakfast with the author and illustrator and then the children selected to interview asked them questions. Both the author and illustrator were very nice and down-to-earth which we found very refreshing. After the interview the kids got their books signed and pictures taken with the book celebrities and we all headed down to the luncheon and oh of course…. the long introductions of presidents, chairs and board members and THEN the honored guests (the author and illustrator). I guess some people like to be recognized. The kids then got to present the award to the author and illustrator and then they made their appreciation speeches.

What I found interesting while listening to both of them was not their bliss at making and finishing the book but their reactions after they finished the project. The author after finishing the book felt washed up. She said after finishing the book, she sat behind her keyboard to try write and felt like she had said everything that needed to be said and drained of any new ideas. She struggled at just writing her set limit of five pages a day.

The illustrator said she was on a high for about three hours after all the illustrations were completed and finalized for the book and then came a fearful and dreaded realization… she had no more hired work to do! She then said she came crashing down into a depression, which caused her to feel a loss of purpose. To illustrate this point she put up a drawing she had done portraying herself. In the drawing she was a person with a sparrow’s head and tail and beside her was a man pointing and laughing at her.

The author and illustrator then spoke about getting notified that they had won the Bluebonnet Award for their book and how it propelled and inspired them. There was then the applause and everyone soon went his or her separate ways and we headed back to the bus that would take us back to the hotel so we could pick up our car to head home.

As you can probably imagine, when everyone else is asleep and you have three hours of driving ahead of you, you have plenty of time to think about things and this illustrator’s drawing -portraying herself as a sparrow kept coming to mind. I found this extremely fascinating…. She thought of herself as a sparrow and someone to be made fun of. Here were two successful and accomplished individuals who found themselves …in a sense of lost. They had put their worth (so to speak) on their accomplishments.

“Is that what our human understanding does to decide our worth?” I thought. I hope I am worth more then what I do and don’t accomplish in life, don’t you? Sparrow… sparrow… sparrow.

The Holy Spirit then rose these words within me, “His eye is on the sparrow”.

Jesus said, “Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows. If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven.”

We are worth more then a whole flock of sparrows! God loves even those who consider themselves as sparrows, those who consider themselves as nothing.

In a great extent God uses those who don’t look and think of themselves highly upon.

“God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them.” Mathew 5:5

“Well suppose that author and illustrator weren’t humble, lowly individuals?” I thought.

The answer came, “it rains on the just and unjust.”

Jesus said talking about the Father in Matthew 5:44-48 “…For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too. If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Why does God show his love and mercy on us? Why does he continue to love us even though we struggle at times? Why does he love those who don’t love and respect him?

It would be hard to go and get right with a father that always carried a belt and bat around wouldn’t it? Not saying God puts up with a bad behavior but He knows which ones who will come and won’t come to Him -even though they seem very far from Him at the moment.

Do accomplishments mean anything to God? I don’t see how really- for no one accomplishes anything good without God’s help. I do see however that God gave those two talented women encouragement. He whispered, “You still have much more to do and my eye is even on those who consider themselves a sparrow.”