Feed the Birds

Do you remember that song from “Mary Poppins?” The one about the old woman who sits on the steps to the cathedral and feeds the birds? She asks others to feed them too. She will provide the food for a small fee (a tuppence) and we can help her to take care of the less fortunate.

I’m not sure why, but that beautiful song got stuck in my head this afternoon. I haven’t seen the movie in quite some time, but I’ve always liked that song, as well as the lullaby “Stay Awake.”

It set my mind to whirring. What is she really asking? She’s asking for help, obviously… someone to care about others as much as she does, if only for a little while. Can you help her? Are you willing to give up yourself for just a short time to help another?

What the bird woman is asking of us is to put aside ourselves and focus on the needs of others. Sure, in the movie, they are birds, but couldn’t she just as easily mean the poor, the less fortunate?

And what about the bird woman herself? She is certainly not high society, but someone that the children’s father hardly notices. But the children see her, as directed by their nanny. Who is she that anyone should listen?

Maybe that’s the point! Not just to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, but to truly notice all of God’s creatures and treat them with respect. From the bird woman all the way down to her birds. All deserve respect. Do we give it?

I work with homeless people everyday. They are as varied as any group of people. These are not addicts and junkies. These are real people. Families. People who have fallen on hard times. People who, through no fault of their own, have become unhoused. Do we even see them?

What makes us so much better than them? NOTHING! And there is that point again. Respect. Do they not deserve it, as fellow human beings? I will tell you – not only do they deserve our respect, but they deserve our compassion! These are people who have seen so much trauma that sometimes they have to fight daily to be able to just breathe!

If nothing else, I ask you to pray for these folks. Their stories are not all that different from our own. There but for the grace of God go I.