A Father’s Love (Notice the baby dove getting a look at our very big world.)
Do you remember The Squished Newborn’s story? It’s the story of a newborn Robin being squished by its protective mommy. Ever since the babies left the nest, the nest has sat empty.
Even now, two years later, I look in the nest when I walk by, just to see if the mamma Robin would use it again, or maybe one of the grown up babies would come back and use the nest for its own eggs.
A couple of weeks ago when I was walking to my front door I glanced in the bush along my walkway, purely out of habit. You can imagine my joy when I saw it occupied, but I was also shocked. What I saw sitting in the nest was not a Robin at all, but a Mourning Dove!
After some quick research my brain learned what my eyes had already told me; on rare occasions a Mourning Dove will take over an abandoned nest. Who’d a thunk it?!
I hurried to the house and got my cousin Aubrey. She’s staying with me for the summer and, as it turns out, she’s not my only visitor! We’ve enjoyed watching the Mourning Dove and we check on it almost every day.
It seldom left the nest, but one day it did and we were thrilled to see two white eggs. We were going to get to watch this little family grow! Every day we checked the nest, wondering if there were babies in it. When we had to go of town for a couple of days, we thought we might miss the hatching.
When we came home the Mourning Dove was all fluffed out covering the nest. There had to be babies under there! We watched and we watched until, just yesterday, Aubrey spotted a tiny little head sticking out. A baby!
We thought that the Mourning Dove we had watched for weeks was the mamma bird, but it turns out it’s the daddy! The male is in charge of sitting on the nest during the day and the female takes her turn at night. Once the babies hatch they keep taking turns in the nest. They take turns feeding their babies as well. How’s that for teamwork?
I can tell you, this father is dedicated to his babies. Since getting a glimpse of the eggs I have not seen the nest empty. The father has sat there protecting his little ones, spreading his feathers and wings over them for warmth and safety.
It reminds me of God’s love for us. Psalm 36:7 (NASB) says, “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.”
Just like this loving Mourning Dove father, our Heavenly Father loves us deeply. We can take refuge in the shadow of His wings and be just as safe and snug as the little babies growing in the bush outside my house.
And that, my friends, is the story of how I captured A Father’s Love. (Click to Tweet!)
Until we meet again,
Josie