What is more humble in all creation than the sparrow? When humans are not trying to shoo them away from our feeders for “serious” birds, or otherwise treating them like a nuisance, we tend to pay them little mind.

The Bible uses the sparrow to make a point about God’s extravagant attention to even minor, inconsequential details–like sparrows.

Sparrows are small, commonplace and nondescript. Or so we think. Until something happens that draws our attention to them in a new way.

For me it was the snow and ice storm of February 2021 that grounded dozens of hungry birds in my yard. What it that pretty little little ball of fluffed out feathers with a charcoal gray head scratching industriously in the snow? A fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca)! The first I had ever seen.

And I was hooked. I set myself the task of photographing and learning to identify the many species of sparrows. I have a long way to go.

We humans can learn much about divine love and creativity by also keeping our eye on the sparrow.

BTW, the sparrow in the photo is a white-throated (Zonotrichia albicollis) dining on a humble meal of poison ivy berries.