“Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who strays from his home.” (Proverbs 27:8, ESV)
When I was a little girl, Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman was one of my favorite books. It was a before-bed favorite from a time when I was too young to read myself. My mother loves to tell a story of how my uncle was reading it to me during a visit and I quoted the book completely from memory to the point where my uncle thought I was actually reading it.
The story goes that a baby bird hatches while his mother is away from the nest. In looking for his mother, he falls from the tree and begins to walk around asking various characters if they are his mother: a chicken, a dog, a kitten, a cow, a truck, and so on. Eventually, the baby bird makes it back to his nest just a moment before the mother returns and upon seeing her, the baby bird knows the mother bird at first sight.
Why? Because there is a sense of natural belonging when the baby sees his mother, who is a bird just like him. The bird is in his intended place– the nest– and with the creature he is meant to be with.
Earlier this year, I left my job to be a full-time stay at home mom, and between preschool drop offs and church, I am seeming to find my people: mostly other moms who funnily enough have also left their jobs this year to stay at home with their kids. And recently, at a Bible study, this verse came up with another mom I’ve been becoming fast friends with. She shared about how she expected to feel guilt when leaving her job, whether due to societal expectations of a woman to also bring home income with her husband, or because she went to college and got a degree she is now no longer using.
But she shared that she doesn’t feel that guilt. She just feels like she’s settling into a place she was designed to be in. And I wholeheartedly agreed with her. The proverb today shows that a bird leaving their nest is like a man who has wandered from his home. It’s not a natural thing. It’s not only taking him out of his natural habitat, but it’s taking him out of the space God designed for him to be in. And if you’ve been there, you know that’s an off-putting feeling.
And this can apply to any situation in which we are trying to make something happen that’s just not meant to happen. It’s not exclusive to stay-at-home moms. God has given us all different walks of life, and to stray from that path that God has us on is to stray from the place He has made for us to occupy.
This is especially poignant in an online-focused world– where we emphasize popularity and wide-reaching recognition over the deep-rootedness of being an active member of the community that we live in. Y’know, the one that God put us in to serve.
Nowadays, we all fall into the trap of wanting to be more influential. We want our businesses to reach the world. We want to be recognized as important people in our field. We want people to follow us and to appear to have this far-reaching purpose in the world. We mistake our effect over strangers as legacy and purpose. But is that the way God designed a relationship with Him? Is that the model that God gave the local Church?
And so in order to make a name for ourselves or to create a life that the world wants us to believe is fulfilling, we look outside our nests. We neglect our homes; which is the first place that God gives us to minister and serve. It’s not natural to look to the big, wide world to the detriment of our homes and communities and the people that share it with us.
And this is not just to say that a mother should stay at home with her children. This is for any Christian and any season of life. A husband should serve his wife and children in the way that God has ordered him to– by loving, cherishing, and leading them. A child should serve their families by obeying their parents and loving their neighbors. The common thread is that the home, or the nest, is the very best place for us to learn about God, develop a reverent fear of Him, serve one another, and be content to dwell.
When we neglect this very first ministry and mission field, we stray. When we pass over the essential care we are to provide in our homes, we are outside of God’s design. He gave us that place, and for many, that home and family is something we prayed for. To overlook it in the pursuit of other things isn’t natural.
Maybe you’re reading this today and you want to figure out how to return to the nest; how to find purpose on the front lines of where God has placed you. Reconnecting with your home and the people in it is a good place to start. Where can you serve them? How can you show them that they are your favorite people to share your life with?
Remember: the baby bird from the story went around and asked all sorts of animals and machines if they were his mother, but it wasn’t until he was back in his intended place that discovered he was where he was supposed to be. The right place was the place he overlooked. Going back to the place God created for us to be is always going to feel like coming home. The places that we experience the most spiritual growth are the places that God asked us to be: in our local communities, loving those who are in our neighborhoods and circles.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)
God prepared the places we are to dwell in and minister to so that we could walk in them. God doesn’t intend for every single one of us to reach the entire world through a public platform or a worldwide ministry. Instead, He intends to reach the world Christian by Christian in their local networks and communities. He designed for us to minister to each other in our homes and local churches, spreading the Gospel to those who share our spaces.
For us women, the most immediate place we have is our home, especially if you’re like me and spend most of your time with your little ones. For those children, I am the first and best example of faith and God’s goodness in their lives. Why would I want to look outside our home for a greater purpose, when those souls inside our nest are the most precious I know? And how much more precious is the time spent teaching them about the God who created them and loves them immensely?
