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Early one morning, about three years ago, I stepped out the back door of our kitchen. The sun was threatening to come up. In that dim light, my eyes were drawn to a small, walnut-sized form on the ground. I looked closer and realized a baby sparrow had fallen from its nest. It was wounded by the fall. The best description I can give is that he looked “crooked.” While he was still breathing, his little body was cold. I decided to put him in a warm box so at least he would be in a comfortable place when he died. It was sad, I thought, that this sparrow would never feel what it’s like when sparrows fly.

I left a while later to run some errands. In my mind, it was certain that the little sparrow would die before I returned home. I thought, “Where will I bury him?” However, this bird had other ideas that didn’t include dying. When I came home, I heard loud chirping coming from the box. Our sparrow, later named Jack Sparrow by Andreya, had a spark. He wanted to live.

Before he flew

Jack Sparrow didn’t thrive right away. It took him some time to begin healing from his injuries. To feed him, I had to pry his little beak open with a small pair of tweezers to force-feed him soft-boiled eggs, cooked rice, or whatever else I could get him to eat. Once he began to feel better, he ate with relish and complained if his feedings were late. I’d often come home to the sound of his loud protesting as if to say, “How have you forgotten to feed me?”

But Jack remained very “crooked-looking.” His wing and tail feathers pointed strangely to the left. I doubted he would ever heal sufficiently enough to fly with the other sparrows, so I let myself get attached. Many times during the day, I found myself sitting with Jack Sparrow at a table on the front porch. He would hop around my laptop and arms, chirping happily as I worked. I never thought there would be a day when Jack Sparrow would fly.

Fly with the sparrows

After some time, Jack began trying to flap his wings. As damaged as he was, he managed to flutter a bit from place to place. He became a pro at fluttering around and picking at my keyboard. Everyone was amazed that Jack not only recovered but had also bonded with me.

I found myself worrying about this little bird whenever I was out. I hoped he wasn’t too hungry while he waited for me to return home. His loud cries for food unnerved me. It’s amazing how much that little bird could eat! As he grew and got stronger, he attempted to fly. It was discouraging at first, watching him fail to gain height. He would just flutter to the ground. But slowly, very slowly, as his injured body began to straighten out and Jack began to fly.

One day during his fluttering exercises, Jack managed to land on the porch light (some ten feet above the ground). I knew then that there was a chance for him to fly with the sparrows. He might have the air under his wings one day and understand how it feels when sparrows fly.

Jack finds his wings

As the days passed, I observed that Jack’s flying skills were improving. He began to hang out with me less. His little eyes stared out at the wild sparrows flying outside. Just outside the front porch where I kept his cage, a couple of sparrows made a nest. Soon, there were babies in the nest. Jack liked to fly to the opposite side of the wall, where the nest was, to “hang out” with his new friends.

A few days later, when I let Jack out to fly and exercise, he didn’t let me return him to his cage as normal. I put food out on the table as usual, which he ate, but he didn’t want to have any part in going back to his cage. I knew what was coming, but instead of facing it at that moment, I simply closed the front door and went to work for the day.

Jack flies with the sparrows

Several hours passed before I came home. I found Jack’s humor to be the same as earlier. There was no way he was going to go back into the cage. So I did what needed to be done. I opened the front door off the porch and waited for him to make his move outside. It took some time—maybe an hour or two—before he noticed that he was free to go. I fed him one last time from my hand, as he had always done, and the next moment, he found his wings and was gone.

I didn’t take into account how happy or sad I would feel when he flew. God had taken a broken sparrow and opened my eyes to the beauty of when sparrows fly.

Flying while broken

Jack wasn’t perfect when he left. His wings remained a bit crooked, and his chest was set a bit off to the side. But the scars of his fall from the nest didn’t matter; he had healed and was able to fly.

I have walked with the Lord long enough to know that His ways are best, even when I don’t understand. Like many, if not all, of you who are reading this, I didn’t come to the Lord without a wound or scar. I was a lot like Jack Sparrow, whose fall from the nest left him a bit “crooked.”

Those scars left me with trepidation, a fear of getting wounded again. The world, this life, and our personal histories have a way of leaving their mark on us. Even after coming to know the Lord, we often stay just like we were when we found Him because our scars speak to us loudly. The wounds of our past tell us that we risk being hurt again.

How many times we have fallen?

Our minds join with the lies of Satan and win the battle of our thoughts. We believe we aren’t good enough because we know who we are, where we came from, how many times we have fallen, and how many times we have failed. It’s easier to believe we don’t qualify than to believe that God could do something with us. We also use this as an excuse to remain in some bad behaviors we engage in because, we say, we are flawed and we fear pain.

Yes, we are flawed. We live in these disposable suits that are destined for decay. But our flaws are what make us perfect candidates for God to use.

Believing the foolish

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:18 NKJV

When we were born again, we answered the call to what the world would consider foolish. What person in their right mind would do such a thing? The person who answers this call is the one who is really wise. Wisdom is not found in books; it is found in God.

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing… 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges (understands) all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 2:6,13-16 NKJV

Wisdom, if we consider the verses above carefully, is not found in what this world says is wisdom. The world tells us we don’t qualify, we don’t measure up, and we don’t have what it takes to make any difference. But God’s wisdom says the opposite. We can understand what God’s mind is because Christ’s mind is in us.

“Wisdom is the ‘art of steering’ through the battles and blessings of life, and living skillfully in whatever conditions you find yourself.”

Nicky Gumble

The in-between

Often, we live in this “in-between” place of God’s wisdom and this world’s wisdom. It is there that the wounds and flaws of our lives become painfully evident, and we pull away from daring to trust God to do more than what we can do alone. We say we belong to God, but we recoil when we don’t understand.

All too often, we allow what broke us to define us. Why do we find letting go so difficult? Why can’t we easily let go of the pains of the past? Because we lived there, and we’re used to it there. Today I challenge you to come up higher, understand that we can’t live in yesterday’s failures, and hope for a victory tomorrow.

God colors with broken crayons

If we could view ourselves as God does, we would see that He takes our broken pieces and puts them together to create a beautiful prism of light for others to see God. Have you ever seen a prism? It refracts light in many different directions and in different colors; it is beautiful. We like to see things straight, with one definition. But, like a prism, God sees things in a multifaceted way. He takes broken pieces and creates something that no one else can see.

We also like to throw away broken things. At home, when I get in the mood to clean, everyone knows that if it’s broken, there’s a good chance it will find its way to the trash bin. If I’m doing a “deep clean,” then it is time to run away and hide all of your “in case I can fix it” valuables. My husband is quite the opposite, so you can imagine the entertaining exchanges that take place when we face the deep clean.

But God is not that way with broken things. For those who dare to offer Him their brokenness, He will use them. It is with the broken that God creates an array of colors that we could never imagine because broken crayons still color.

When the broken color

Consider Rahab from Joshua 2, who hid Israel’s spies. She made it into Jesus’ genealogy (see Matt. 1:5) and also made the list in Faith’s Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11. She was a flawed person, but her crayons still colored!

Think about Miriam (Moses’ sister) from Exodus 2 and Exodus 15. She spoke against Moses’ wife (Num. 12:1–16) because of where she came from; she was (apparently) racist, but God still used her. Her crayons, although broken, still colored.

The woman at the well in John 4 had multiple husbands. Jesus spoke to her, and she became an evangelist. Even with her flawed past, her brokenness colored a message of salvation for everyone who was in her path.

The broken are needed

If every one of these women, and others in the Bible like Samson, Moses, David, Paul, etc., had considered that their brokenness and scars disqualified them from doing something for God, where would we be today? Think of the fact that wherever you have a scar, it is stronger than it was before the scar. The Kingdom of God needs broken people who have been touched by God to speak into the broken world.

We often think of healing in the physical realm. Indeed, anyone who has been physically sick is very appreciative of healing. However, healing of the body is sometimes easier for us to comprehend than healing of the spirit and soul. You can put a band-aid on a wound. You can’t put a band-aid on a wounded spirit and soul, but Jesus can.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

luke 4:18,19 NKJV

Learning to kiss the waves

Simply put, brokenness and scars make us perfect candidates to carry God into a broken world. We can relate! This also means that when we are out among the storms and waves of this world, we will be wounded again. However, when those waves slam us against the rocks on the shore, may it work not to break us but to make us rest on the Rock of Ages. In fact, we can rejoice when the trouble comes because He steadies us as our Rock in the storm.

I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.

Charles H. Spurgeon

We have much in common with Jack Sparrow. He was a “cast-away” sparrow and had fallen from his nest. Without an intervention, Jack was certain to have perished in the cold early morning air. Instead of dying, Jack was found and thrived. His scars spoke only of what he had been through and how far he had come.

Broken and scarred

Our brokenness won’t last forever. We are all broken and scarred, sent to bring hope to a dying world. You see, we simply look like our Savior, who was scarred before us.

God is waiting to see His children heal. He is waiting to see when sparrows fly.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Matthew 10:29-31 NKJV

PS: A few months after I released Jack Sparrow, a “random” sparrow made it into my bedroom and hopped onto a chair. I was sure it was Jack, for his tail was a little “off,” bending ever so slightly to the left. Sitting carefully next to him, he hopped onto my knee and made little chirping sounds just like he used to. I felt a little silly as tears stung the backs of my eyes. I scooped him up and released him out the back door. I’m glad he stayed nearby. I still look up sometimes and wonder if he’s there. I learned the lesson of beauty when sparrows fly.

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No Scar?

By Amy Carmichael

Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet is was wounded by the archers, spent,

Leaned Me against a tree to die, and rent

By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:

Hast thou no wound?

No wound, no scar?

Yet as the Master shall the servant be,

And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;

But thine are whole: can he have followed far

Who has no wound nor scar?