Birds and Prayer

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

Always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,

For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,

Being confident of this very thing,

That He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

-Philippians 1:3-6

Birds present a beautiful picture of a parent’s life.  Before the little birds come into the world, the parent birds prepare the nest with diligence, carefully choosing their building materials so that their nest provides an optimal home for the new birds.  When the baby birds hatch from their eggs, the parent birds nurture and provide for them.  Their activity centers on the growth and protection of these helpless birds in their care.  As the baby birds grow, the parents lead them further afield and train them to find their own worms and berries.  They teach them to fly and the babies grow in their knowledge and skill.  The day arrives when the parent birds have done all they can for their charges.  The babies have grown into adult birds ready to experience the world on their own.  They fly away while the parent birds watch from the nest.

In the same way, human parents diligently prepare their homes and lives for the new baby.  They carefully plan the details of the baby’s arrival and provide all that’s needed for an ideal home life.  When the baby is born, the parents wrap him in soft blankets and nurture him with love and protection.  Their lives now center on this helpless baby who needs their constant care.  They teach him about the world and train him to use the gifts that God has given him.  They instruct him in the knowledge that he will need to take his place in society.  Before long he has grown into a young man ready to experience life on his own.  The parents watch as he steps away with strength and vitality.  Their role of gathering him beneath their wings is finished.

However, unlike birds, human parenthood never really stops.  A parent’s role changes but it continues.  The departure of our children presents us with new opportunity and responsibility, the opportunity to counsel and the responsibility to pray.  Both require wisdom and discipline.  Both require daily guidance from the Lord.  Our children are no longer in our direct care.  No longer can we gather and protect them under our wings.  But we can earnestly and intensely lift them in prayer to their Father in heaven.  R.A. Torrey illustrates this type of prayer with a pictorial word, “stretched-out-ed-ly.”  He writes, “The prayer that prevails with God is the prayer into which we put our whole soul, stretching out toward God in intense and agonizing desire.”

That’s the type of prayer I strive to pray for my children, stretched-out-ed-ly.  I yearn to stretch out toward God intensely desiring Him to work in the lives of my children who are far from my wings.  I earnestly cry out for Him to gather them beneath His wings and to love and guide them in His ways.  I pray that their love would abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that they would approve the things that are excellent, and that they would be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ.  (Philippians 1:9-11)  I pray confidently that He would continue His work in their lives.  That is my new parental responsibility and I fulfill it gladly.