A few people have asked me about the magpie (which actually turned out to be a currawong) and its eggs since I wrote about them a couple of months ago. The good news was that the currawong’s boldness was vindicated and the nest survived.
But there was a sequel to the story just a couple of weeks ago.
Walking through the park that adjoins our street, Dave and the kids discovered a baby currawong directly under the tree with the nest. It shivered underneath its downy feathers and braced itself against the winds that had obviously knocked it out of the tree.
We did what you do in a situation like this, and rang WIRES, the New South Wales wildlife information rescue and education service. Then on their advice, we put the currawong into a box with warm towels and a hot water bottle, and took it to the local vet until someone from WIRES could pick it up.
If the first chapter of the story was a lesson about God’s sovereignty, the second was a reminder of our human responsibility. The same God whose sovereignty embraces the fall of a sparrow also gave laws to his people about subjects so seemingly trivial as what to do if you “come across a bird’s nest” (Deut 22:6-7).
Furthermore, this is how God wants us to treat a fallen currawong chick, how much more (according to the logic of 1 Corinthians 9:9) must this apply to how we treat men and women and children made in God’s image.
