A Lost Bird

It's been a year since we moved back to Japan and settled into Nagoya...and just over two weeks since coming back from a bit of a vaca in the US. One thing I've always missed about my Tennessee home is the bird-songs or bird-calls. I actually didn't pay much attention to it growing up but one morning while FaceTiming family in Tennessee I could hear so many birds just chirping away. I thought, wow, we just don't have that here. I guess because all the concrete or perhaps the crows (which Japan does have in abundance) run the sing-song type birds away. 

However, in the past week a normal looking black bird has shown up at the corner of the 8 floor building we live in and is quite the sing-song neighbor. I'm determined to get a video or picture at least once. And while all this might be the most boring post to you it speaks to me because I've come to two conclusions: Number one, my feathered friend is clearly lost and number two, I feel like this is a grace gift from the Lord. 

What my feathered friend doesn't know (we really need to give him a name) is that it has been a really rough week. A rough time of reentry into Japan life and culture. I'm tired and I just got back! I wonder if he feels lost? I do. I feel off the path, uncertain of why I am here and not sure how I feel about the term "home". They say "home is where your heart is" and "home is where we are together" (insert hallmark movie clip). I once bought a coffee mug of a cute camper/rv that said, "home is where you park it." Home? The longer I live overseas the more I am truly torn between the two worlds and not sure how I really define home.

C.S. Lewis has several quotes about "home". But perhaps this one says it best "Our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful inns for us along our journey, but He takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home.”

Even though I feel lost and confused at times, in solidarity with my friend. I know the Father sees me and I am not lost to Him. Actually, in His plan and sovereignty, I am right where I am supposed to be. And so is my bird friend...if for nothing else than to comfort this weary soul and to provide a piece, a sound of home here in a foreign land.  I am not comfortable, and although I'm supposed to strive for contentment, I'm not so sure that I will not ever be content until I'm truly home. 

"Look at the birds o the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?...O you of little faith"- Matthew 6:26, 30