Empty Nest

A few weeks ago we discovered a little bird's nest in our office's golf cart. It was a bit of a predicament because the President's Office needed to use the cart that day. That's why we discovered it in the first place. But despite the trip across campus and hauling some guests around, somehow the nest remained in tact and once the golf cart was back in its parking spot the little birdie flew right back home without hesitation to sit on her three speckled eggs.

Throughout these past few weeks, it's been so sweet to watch the little guys hatch, open their eyes, get their feathers, and cheep for food. It's become a small high point to go out there and admire them for a few minutes every day, snap a photo, and marvel at the magnificence of God's handiwork.

We haven't had rain here since about the time I got back from India and it's felt so oppressive to see the earth so dry. It finally got really cloudy and breezy today and you could feel the sky just waiting to burst at any moment with warm summer showers.

I felt so relieved at the thought of a good, strong, redeeming rain for this dry, hot summer so I went to see my little cheeps and enjoy the weather under the overhang by our building door.

The nest was empty.

It's a small disappointment in a lifetime of small moments in the day, and in some way I also feel so full that their little lives have finally really begun, but man. If this is a tiny nibble of a taste at what being a mom with kids going off to college feels like then count me out. I already miss them, and I only saw them for all of two minutes per day.

But in this I am thankful for the wonderment and beauty of the living breathing Earth that is around us. I am thankful for getting to watch a little snapshot of life as it was intended for a couple of weeks. I am thankful for the rain, and the life it brings. I am thankful for the moments of love that God gifts us in small things such as this.

I am thankful.