This is a painting  by the wonderful Victoria watercolorist, Leslie Redhead. http://www.leslieredhead.com/  I hope that Leslie won't mind if I put this charming picture here. Admittedly...these are wrens and they are not sparrows and they are in a maple tree...not a Victoria Lilac....even so...

I have a little bird house, charmingly painted and decorated by a grandchild and wedged into a crook in the branches of the Victoria lilac tree.  It has held a nest of little sparrows once or twice in past years.  I looked for it today, and found that it had been moved.  It must have fallen down and been replaced by the neighbor children. So it was somewhat askew and I took it down to examine the interior by lifting up the hinged roof.  Inside was a nest…in a state of disuse and broken a bit by it’s tumble from the tree.  The nest was made up of grass, moss, bits of fluff and what have you…but woven in amongst the other materials was a surprising amount of hair.  Human hair.  Obviously (to me)….MY OWN  hair…a lot of it. I wondered how a little bird could have gathered so much of my hair to build her nest.  As I have worked around the yard, flicking my hair out of my eyes…taking my hat off and on…I never noticed the loss of a few hairs here and there caught by the wind.  But the birds must have a sharp eye for such materials when they are doing the important work of building their nests.   My mind went to the words of Jesus in Luke 12: 6&7

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, 

and not one of them is forgotten before God?

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not therefore: 

ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Sometimes our losses are heartbreaking and sometimes they are of very little concern to us. But great or small…they are never to no purpose.  We have a loving father who is watching out for the sparrows (and the wrens) and at the same time noticing and caring about everything concerning us...right down to the hairs of our head.