Susannahh Sparrow

                Susannah Sparrow hatched one fine spring day in a nest high in the branches of a dogwood tree. Sparrows grow up quickly and in just a few weeks she was flying from branch to branch. Over the course of the summer, autumn and winter, she learned to scratch for millet and barley seed on the ground and catch insects on the wing. As winter gave way to spring again, Susannah was ready to build a nest of her own…in the same tall dogwood tree.

                Early one morning her tree began to shake. Susannah fluttered up to the topmost branch and looked down. Men! Men with axes! And they were chopping down her tree. Susannah flew to the next dogwood tree but soon that too, began to shake as more men hacked at the trunk. Then the next tree…and the next…and the next. Susannah now had nowhere to perch.

                Susannah took to the air. She circled over the grove of trees she had called home. Men were everywhere, swinging axes, shouting and laughing. Susannah would need a new home. She flew up from the plain over the hill and could see ahead of her the gleaming golden roof of the temple, surrounded by buildings of all sizes and enclosed within a high stone wall. A city of men. On a hillside above the city a grove of ancient olive trees shaded the land. Men would never cut down those trees, Susannah thought. She winged her way towards it. Then she heard a shriek high above her. A hawk! And it was diving for her. Susannah flew as fast as she could, dipping and weaving, away from the hawk and away from the olive grove with the hawk pursuing her. Finally she topped the high city walls and came to rest on a ledge shielded from the hawk above. She was safe. She was also tired, hungry and thirsty.

                From the ledge, Susannah looked down. There was a tiny stream feeding a pool and at the edge of the stream a small mill. Scattered grains lay on the ground near the water. Just what she needed. Susannah fluttered down. At the edge of the pool she drank her fill. Then she hopped over to the seeds on the path. So busy was she pecking at her food she did not notice a shadow until a net dropped down over her.

                “Gotcha!” a boy crowed. A grubby hand reached into the net and captured Susannah. The boy carried her into a narrow alley where she was thrown into a rickety cage made of twigs tied together with straw. She was so astonished and frightened she had no idea what was happening until a voice spoke.

                “So he got you, too. He’s been looking for another sparrow for days.”

                Susannah turned to the voice and was shocked. The other bird in the cage was also a sparrow, but his feathers were tattered and dull. He lay weakly against the twigs. “What do you mean?” Susannah asked.

                “You’re not a city sparrow, are you?” the other bird asked. “If you were, you would know to never eat the grain by the mill pond. I’m Shallum, by the way. Not that it matters much now.”

                “Why?” Susannah asked.

                “The miller hates sparrows. He says we eat too much of his grain and make him lose money. So he pays the street boys to catch us. He gives them a penny for every two sparrows they bring him. This boy caught me yesterday but he needed another bird in order to be paid. So now he has you.”

                “If the miller hates us so much, why does he want us?”

                “To kill us.”

                Susannah shuddered. She had escaped the danger of the men chopping down her home. She had escaped the hawk. But now she was in a cage and if she could not escape, she would die. She beat her wings against the twigs and tried to shred the straw with her beak but it did no good. The boy holding the cage just laughed and shook the cage so hard both Susannah and Shallum went tumbling.

                “It’s no use,” Shallum said. “I tried that too when I was first caught. The boy has what he wants and as soon as the miller pays him, he will wring our necks.”

                “But we can’t just give up!” Susannah cried.

                “What else can we do?” the other bird replied.

                Laughing, the boy shook the cage again. As he did so, a voice asked, “Hello there, lad. What have you got there?”

                The boy looked up at the man who had asked the question. “What’s it to you, mister?”

                “Oh, I was just curious what a boy with two sparrows in a cage was up to. What are you planning to do with them?”

                “I’m going to sell them. The miller gives me a penny for every two sparrows I catch.”         

                “And what does the miller do with them?” the man asked.

                “He kills them.”

                The man was silent for a long moment. “Tell you what. Will you sell the sparrows to me instead of the miller?”

                “Why should I? If I don’t keep bringing the miller birds, he might stop paying me.”

                “Well, what if I gave you ten pennies for the sparrows?”

                “Ten pennies!” the boy shouted. “Why would you do that? They aren’t worth ten pennies. They aren’t good for anything.”

                “Does it matter why I would do that? Now, would you like ten pennies or are you determined to sell them to the miller for one penny?”

                “You’ve got a deal!”

                The man counted out ten pennies and the boy handed over the cage, then ran towards the marketplace dreaming of all the sweets he could buy with ten whole pennies. As soon as the boy was out of sight, the man opened the cage. He took Shallum out first. The poor bird lay in his hand, too weak to even flap his wings. The man held Shallum up in his open hand and gently blew on him. The tattered feathers smoothed out and became shiny once again. Shallum even seemed to grow plumper. Then with a grateful chirp he spread his wings and flew off. The man reached for Susannah. Unlike when the boy had cruelly clutched her, the man was gentle and Susannah was not afraid. The man blew on her and it seemed she once more smelled the dogwood trees in blossom. Then she too, launched into flight.

                When the man left the alley, Susannah followed him high above. He walked through the city streets greeting one person, then another. Soon a crowd was following him and he led them to the temple. In the courtyard, he stood and spoke to the crowd, telling stories and teaching them. When he was finished, he walked into the temple and knelt to pray. Susannah flew in also. Inside, high above the people were sturdy cedar beams. Here, Susannah perched. What a perfect place for a nest! High above the grubby hands of little boys, shielded from hawks flying above, and plenty of grain, spilled from offerings around the base of the altar.

                So Susannah built her nest on the cedar beam, flying out each day to catch insects. From a ledge on the wall she would watch and listen to the man who had set her free. At night, she was safely shut inside. As the spring days grew longer, thousands and thousands of people came to the temple to celebrate a great festival. For many days the man did not come. One day, there was a great uproar among the crowds. Susannah flew out to see the cause of the commotion. There, in the center of the street, surrounded by soldiers, was her man. He did not look like the day he freed her. His clothes were torn and bloody and he wore a crown of thorns upon his head. He carried the beam of a tree upon his shoulders. With a shock, Susannah recognized the tree…it was the dogwood that had been her first home.

                Susannah followed until the man was led to a hill outside the city. There he was nailed to the beam that was lifted up onto the upright of a cross. She could watch no more. Susannah fled to the safety of her nest in the temple. Time passed and a strange thing happened. The skies became dark as night. Susannah tucked her head under her wing. Sparrows sleep in the dark. Suddenly there was a terrible shaking, as in the day when her home in the dogwood tree was cut down. The whole building shook and with a screech that sounded like the hunting hawk, the huge curtain that hung before the inner part of the temple ripped in two, beginning from the top down to the bottom. The light had returned, and frightened, Susannah flew out of the temple until she came to a garden. There were small trees and shrubs here and a wall of rock that had chambers carved into it. Susannah settled into one of the trees. Just before sunset, a group of men came carrying a body on a litter. They covered the body with linen cloth and spices and laid it in the chamber carved into the rock, then sealed the opening with a large stone. Susannah once more recognized her man. She did not understand what was happening. She was only a sparrow, after all, but she grieved.

                Afraid to go back to the temple after the earthquake, Susannah set about building a new nest in a tree in the garden. Men came and took up positions in front of the tomb of her man. On the third day, just as false dawn awakened Susannah, there came another rumbling and then a light shone out of the chamber brighter than the sun. The men guarding the tomb fell down in fear.  But Susannah was not afraid of the light, for out of it stepped her man…alive…the man who had set her free and who had come to set the whole world free.

The Psalmist said, “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young – a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God”

Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the hairs of your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth mor than many sparrows.”