Even the Sparrow Found a Home

Have you ever stood outside a window
and watched a warm room glow,
and wished, more than anything,
that someone inside would open the door
and say, Come in. We saved a place for you?

That is the ache in this song.
It was sung long ago by people
who loved one place more than any other,
and whose whole hearts leaned toward it.

How lovely, they sang,
how lovely is the house where you live, God.
My heart aches for your courtyards.
My whole self sings to be near you.

The temple was the one place on all the earth
where people came close to God.
Long before, when Solomon finished building it,
God's glory had filled that house like a shining cloud.
And the singers wanted more than a visit.
They wanted to stay.

And then they noticed something small.
Up under the roof of God's own house,
tucked safe in the high stone,
a sparrow had built her nest.

A sparrow, the tiniest and plainest of birds,
the kind that gets shooed away.

But no one shooed her.
She had found a home.
Right there beside the altar of God
she laid her little ones down to sleep,
and nobody sent them away.

If even the sparrow gets to stay,
they thought,
then maybe there is room for us too.

Happy are the ones who live in your house, they sang.
Happy are the ones whose road leads home to you.
One day in your courtyards
is better than a thousand days anywhere else.
I would rather wait at your doorstep, God,
than have the finest room in the grandest palace
far away from you.

Maybe you know that longing too,
the wish to belong somewhere,
to be wanted and never left out.

The singers could only half-see
where their song was pointing.
A door was coming.
A door that would open wide
for sparrows and for children
and for everyone the world forgets to count.

His name is Jesus.
One day he would stand with his arms open and say,
In my Father's house there is room.
Room for you.
He would open the door himself,
and never let it close again.

So if you have ever felt too small to matter,
remember the sparrow.

Even the sparrow found a home.
And the God who kept her a place beside his altar
has kept a place for you, with your name on it,
in a house where the door stands open
and the welcome will never end.

He is gathering a whole family in,
and he will not come home missing you.