The kids were watching Mary Poppins the other day and I was struck by the story of the lady feeding the birds. Mary Poppins is talking the kids into being excited about going with their father to work the next day and she starts telling them about the lady as she holds a beautiful snow globe of it.
In talking about the father in the story and of course of you know the movie he’s kind of a tough rules and order-oriented dad, the kids ask why people don’t stop and give lady money or why they don’t see her altogether. Mary Poppins answers, “Some people don’t see past the end of their nose.”
Some of us don’t see past the end of our noses. If we’re too busy in the goings on of life it’s easy not to see the world around us or the needs around us. I read an article (http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/please_dont_feed_our_homeless_many_cities_say)You give and last night about some cities outlawing or making it really difficult for people to feed the homeless in their cities. Wow. I’m not even going to get into the statistics of how many of our homeless are veterans or are mentally ill or the many, many folks who have found themselves homeless for the first time in the past couple years in our economy.
But a challenge to each of us is to see past the end of our noses and our own little worlds and to see what we can do. It’s easy to see issues like hunger or homelessness or human trafficking or immigration or education reform as these big, huge things that we can’t make a difference in. But all those commercials that say that all of us together, all of our little drops in the bucket CAN make a difference – that’s not just Hollywood or a pipe dream. That’s real. What can we do today? What are you passionate about? What has God given you a vision for?
Trying to see past the end of my nose…
“Feed the Birds” Lyrics
Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul’s
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she call,
“Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you’ll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds,” that’s what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies
All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can’t see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares
Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she’s calling to you
“Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag”
Blessings on the Journey 