4th June 2024
You did it for me
“The King will reply. ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
The morning was warm, and I went out back early to weed around our little hand-dug pond. There it was, our Hawk we called it, only this time it was not resting on the power pole above our heads, but sitting on the ground near the pond. It did not fly away as usual, but just sat there. Is it exhausted I wondered, or did it just have one of our doves as its prey? Then I noticed its right wing was not sitting right. It was injured. As I weeded and wondered what I should do, it stared at me as if to say: ‘Are you going to help me?’ I kept feeling as if it was coming up behind me and tapping me on the shoulder.
My daughter called the nearest rehab for animals, and they were too short-staffed to send anyone out. We took a picture of it and sent it to them; it was a Swainson’s Hawk they said. I heard my daughter say in shock, ‘You want us to catch it?’ We figured out what to do, and it did not try to escape, and soon we had it safely in a box. Off we went to the rehab which was an hour away. We had plans in our minds that if it could be helped, we would bring it back to its home, but we found out that the break to its wing was too bad and it could not be helped. I instantly felt great sadness.
Some may say it was just a bird, but we are reminded in scripture that God keeps track of every sparrow that falls and every hair on our head (Luke 12: 6-7). In other words, God is aware of everything that goes on around us and to us. God values us highly and loves us and his creation deeply. I do not have the power to heal, only God has. We can help, and we can try to rescue, but in the end, only God can heal, only God can save. I feel now that it was not the Hawk tapping me on the shoulder asking for help, but God asking it I was willing to. When we see the broken and the wounded around us, are we willing to take that step and bring this person to the healer? We may have to pick them up physically, or just hold them up in prayer. Are we willing to put down what we are doing, to go that extra mile for them? As we are told in Matthew 25:34-40, if we extend help to others, we are also doing it for Christ.
It is a relief to know that we are not responsible for the salvation of others, but we are responsible for telling them about the love of God (Matthew 28:18-20). Jesus will take the responsibility from there, In the end, it was not our Hawk, but Gods. The people we see who are broken, as we once were, are God’s beloved children. You may occasionally feel like God is tapping you on the shoulder asking if you are going to do something. May he keep tapping until we get the hint.
Prayer
Holy Father, I realise our beloved Hawk is now in your hands and always was. May we see with your eyes, your broken children around us, may we see the need we can provide, and point them to you for the help we cannot give; point them to the healer of us all. We praise you for your unconditional love for us. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Anne Gillam
About the writer:
Anne Gillam is a retired Pastor in Grace Communion International, Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA.
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