Sparrow of the Air

Sparrows are a funny sort. First thing you'll notice when you look at this bird is the way they like to stick together. Large groups of these band together each year when the seasons change and form a migration. These birds seem to like it warm all year round and will do whatever it takes to get to their preferred location even if it means flying long hours in a one-way direction to get there. These birds also like to gather in large flocks wherever food can be found and all peck at the ground. Some of these even like to feast on bugs in midair. This often means diving down to catch one found near the ground. Just when you think it'll miss and probably fall to the ground, it swoops back up again with its catch in its mouth.

Well, birds don't have mouths, they have beaks that function much like a mouth. Only, I'd imagine your mouth can't catch bugs in midair or even pick apart seeds and grains. That's because the birds have been specially designed and equipped with a beak. The length of the beak matters too because if they had a long one, they wouldn't be able to manipulate things easily. Just imagine a teeny tiny bird with an unusually long beak. It might even unbalance the bird during flight and cause it to fall. The birds are borne up on something called wings that are covered in feathers. Feathers do a couple things for the bird like fluff up at night and keep the air in. This keeps the bird cool on a warm night and warm on a cool night, sort of like your homes insulating layer, if you have one. An insulating layer that is, not a home.

I know not everyone will believe me on this, but air is an excellent insulator. Just ask the birds. Then again, the birds have to fly. To do this, they stretch out their wings. Notice how the wings are in perfect proportion to the body, not too long and not too short. Both of which would keep the bird from flying or lose its' balance. The wings too are in just the right place on the body. It's a perfect position that allows the bird to be borne up of the wind and kept aloft by flapping its' wings. Should the wings be too far back on the body, the sparrow would tip forward and quite likely fall. Should the wings be too far forward on the body, the poor little sparrow would struggle constantly in flight as the weight of its' own body pulls it back. This just right position is known as the center of balance. In olden days, the sparrows were bought and sold for a farthing, or very much like a penny in this day today. Almost anyone could afford them, so these were considered the birds of the poor.

Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

Psalm 84:3