My Special Friend

Sad I, the tiny sparrow was.
I wasn't very big.
Yet happy were my friends in flight,
from limb to branch to twig.

I couldn't eat as others did
and didn't seem to grow.
I'd follow quite a ways behind.
I was too weak and slow.

Yes, they had teased and laughed at me
when I was back in school.
They'd scoff, then fly away from me.
Some kids can be so cruel.

Yet growing up, I was okay
here living out-of-doors.
So optimistically I grew-
but when it rains, it pours.

A violent gust of wicked wind
had hurled me to the ground!
The other birds had seen me fall
so they had gathered 'round.

A Shepherd came when I had felled,
so sudden and abrupt.
My sore and crippled body then
was in His hands He cupped.

I saw some ugly, rugged scars
cut deep into those hands.
My wing was hurt, I couldn't fly.
This wasn't in my plans.

He raised me up. It frightened me!
The other sparrows hushed.
Because I didn't know His love
I thought that I'd be crushed!

Believing things that I could see,
I held to physical.
Unknown, the things that I could not,
I feared the spiritual.

Yet now He holds and cares for me
unlike those other birds.
I can't describe the peacefulness.
I just can't find the words.

It's odd that I once feared the Lord
when I was on the mend.
But I have learned He loves me so.
Now He's my special friend.

This poem was a finalist in the September 2015 poetry contest