This morning as I peeked out my window I noticed a bright, red bird clinging to a bush outside my kitchen. I wondered how the little thing held so tightly to our butterfly bush, one we enjoy immensely during the summer months – a large shrub where our winged friends dip and dart around at their leisure during our warm Mississippi weather.

But today the cold rain poured in torrents, yet the bird held steady. That is when I grabbed my iPhone and snapped a photo. I concluded there was a lesson to be learned from this experience – my witnessing a tiny feathered creature grasping for survival wasn’t just an accidental sighting.

I suppose it was just an ordinary moment – a bird nestled deep within a hedge, a bush outside my kitchen window, for safety during a rainstorm. But then, my eyes opened wider as I remembered the Bible verse. In the first chapter of Job, Satan asked God, “Does Job fear God for nothing … have you placed a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?”

What is a hedge of protection? I read online at www.gotquestions.org that as a Christian, when in prayer, is it OK to ask the Lord to put a hedge of protection around us and our family? The answer is yes, absolutely! In addition to putting on the armor God gives us (Ephesians 6:13-17), there is nothing wrong with asking for God’s protection. As seen with Job, a hedge is an apt illustration for what God’s protection looks like.

And so I stood and stared at the red bird this morning, as it fluffed its wings to shake off the rain, tucking its head under its wing, I saw the moment with new eyes. We are promised that the Lord’s protection is all consuming for the smallest of creatures and as I stood in my dry, warm kitchen, I witnessed God’s hand in the life of a small, feathery creature.

It was the greatest of blessings.

I began to think about my life and the hedges of God’s protection, which I have experienced. As some of you know 2018 has been a difficult time for the McKee family, with the sudden death of our youngest son. I admit there have been moments, (just moments, thankfully), during the last several months when I have felt alone with my grief, but then a card will arrive in the mail or a friend will invite me to lunch or at church I receive one of those almost suffocating hugs that bring so much comfort. These are my hedges – a God thing.

I wondered how many years I have taken my hedges for granted or years that I wasn’t grateful or was so blind to not recognize the Lord’s hedge of protection in my life? I am sure that this morning the red bird beckoned my attention in a most rewarding way.

And so today, I have resolved to be more in tuned with the ways of the Lord, to listen and pay attention to His Word and to always be grateful for the little red birds of my life as part of my hedges of protection. I hope you will as well.

Anne B McKee is a Mississippi historian, writer and storyteller. She is listed on the Mississippi Humanities Speakers Bureau and Mississippi Arts Commission’s Performing Artist and Teaching Artist Rosters. See her web site: www.annemckeestoryteller.com