PEEP!

We have a bluebird house outside our sunroom window. To my husband’s chagrin, the only residents we’ve had since putting it up have been sparrows. Many, many sparrows - all from the same family, most likely. The little couple got an early start this year, and yesterday we saw the first of many babies take flight. They flew as far as our bedroom window ledge where they huddled together (two of them) and peeped desperately for further instructions. There they roosted all night long, waking before dawn to begin their hungry peeping protest in earnest.

As we sat at the bedroom window and watched them last night I wished that I could capture the image of the babies on the ledge peeping madly while just beyond them on the patio table Daddy perched with a still-wiggling grub in his beak. Enticing. Inviting. Listening. I knew there was a lesson there, but it took me until this morning to really get to the heart of it.

My son and a friend got into a very public argument via Facebook. Are you rolling your eyes? Ah, yes. Welcome to life with a teenager. The resulting consequences have yet to play out today and I’m perched by the phone anxiously awaiting that call from the principal’s office while praying without ceasing for God to work in the circumstances. The problem is - I’m his mom. My prayers for him are not quite as bold as those I’m inclined to pray for someone else’s child. Though I have the same desire for all of our children – that they would walk with God and know Him fully – I don’t want MY son to suffer in order to learn the lesson. Here’s where the peeping begins.

As I was wrestling with God this morning over my son’s situation, my own worry, and my inability to let go of my will in favor of God's, I got an email from a close friend asking me to pray over some specific circumstances for her son. As I replied to her email, assuring her that I was with her in prayer, I realized that I needed help too. Major help. PEEP. After I asked her for her prayers in return, I told her that I could see the two of us hand in hand at the throne of Grace lifting up the other’s prayers. PEEP. And I told her that it reminded me of the two little chicks on my window ledge peeping their hearts out to their Daddy. PEEP PEEP!

In God’s Word, He not only commands us to pray without ceasing and to be anxious for nothing, but by His very nature He invites us and entices us to pray. He is the love we need. He is the comfort we desire. He is the peace in our circumstances. He is our assurance and our hope. He is a strong tower where the righteous (and the cowards) run for cover. He is. He is. I hate to say it, but He’s Daddy bird with a big fat grub and all we have to do is fly to him to get it. But sometimes we aren’t strong enough to get there, and we need someone to huddle up next to us and PEEP their hearts out on our behalf.

So, here’s hoping you have some ‘peeps’ who will PEEP with you at the throne. Don’t be afraid to ask for their help to pray God’s will into being when you don’t have the faith to fly on. God is waiting with good things for those who PEEP.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! " Matthew 7:7-11