It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I opened my front door to retrieve the newspaper from my porch. As soon as I opened the door I noticed a mess of twigs and debris that cluttered the porch. As I try to keep a tidy and inviting entrance to my home, I felt a little irritated and wondered how the porch could look so in disarray when only the day before it had been neat and clean. We had just placed our freshly painted wicker furniture there and swept the porch and steps. Then I looked above the door and observed the reason for the disorder. There on the window ledge above my door was a bird’s nest. There were no birds around or any eggs in it, so I decided to remove it. The very next day I discovered that it had been very carefully remade by one determined mother robin. When my husband checked it out later, he found that there were now eggs in it, and he decided to leave it alone for nesting.

      Every morning I would watch the nest from my family room. At first when I would step out to get my newspaper, the robin would fly away frightened by my interruption. After a few days, she seemed to get used to the door opening, and she remained on the nest.

      It was so enjoyable watching this scene until finally one day we discovered that tiny baby robins were raising their little heads awaiting their feeding. We were in awe at this heartwarming sight. We then began watching to see when the little birds would finally get the strength to leave the nest. Somehow we missed this event, and now the empty nest is all that is left to remind us of our porch guests.

      Several lessons were to be learned from the nest in my window. First of all I learned that sometimes you have to put up with the disarray to receive the beautiful final results. Life twists on a circuitous and sometimes unappreciated route to arrive at the beautiful final destination. We must be patient in waiting the final day!

      Second I learned that it is easy to miss the beauty of nature and God’s creation by our busyness and daily routines. Sometimes we just need to slow down, and as the old saying goes, “take time to smell the roses.”