Do father robins worry?

The image of mother and father robins nudging their young toward the edge of the nest to get them to fly is fascinating to me. How does the parent robin know when the time is right? What if the time isn't right?? Does the baby robin have any say in the matter??? How many senseless baby robin deaths have occurred because robin parents miscalculated???? (Take a deep breath pastor....)

Why am I so emotional??? My wife and I have four fantastic children and feel so blessed. Each one has their own personality, goals, and accomplishments. Each one has made us smile, cry, and worry. After 28+ years of parenting, you think it would get easier to watch them venture into an unknown chapter of their lives. It isn't!

Just this morning our third child started a journey to suburban Philly for a job interview with unknown destination, unknown interviewer, unknown questions to be answered, and unknown outcome. How can a mother and father deal with all these unknowns much less our son who is in the middle of this wilderness. While I know mom and I need to nudge our kids toward the edge of the nest, it feels so non-parental. Come on, please tell me there are other parents who have experience this tension and concern!

This morning's reading from the Word was comforting in that the author was talking about a time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3 is filled with competing tensions. Being born and dying, planting and uprooting, life and death, gathering and casting away, dancing and mourning and on and on.....and then 3:11 happens!

"God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts, without

enabling them to discover what God has done from beginning to end."

Life tensions subside when our perspective about the unknown future is couched in the notion, dare I say, the truth that God is in control of all things. I can't speak for robin parents, but my wife and I need to bend a knee to our heavenly Father and simply offer our worship. When we are faithful to trust God, a still small voice whispers back toward us, "Fear not. I am with you."

(There is your future son, go grasp it.) Love, dad