Kindness to People Who Serve Us

“When you come across a bird’s nest alongside the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, don’t take the mother with the young. You may take the babies, but let the mother go so that you will live a good and long life.”
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 MSG

I have been stressing over these two verses for a long time. I couldn't figure out what they meant. If you haven't figured this out yet, the book of Deuteronomy is full of ways to understand the 10 commandments.

Actually when you read a verse, anywhere in the Bible, there is a principal behind that verse. It helps you understand something. I would encourage you to sit on that verse and try to see the principal behind the verse. Ask yourself,"Why was this verse written?"

Sometimes we just ignore the verse because we think it only applies to the people living a long time ago. That is a dangerous assumption. If we do that, we will pick and choose only the verses that we think are important.

Back to this commandment about the birds.Taking the mother bird means that you are harming the mother. Letting the mother bird go means you are allowing them to live and actually valuing even a bird. Perhaps this is why it is written in the Bible.

There are a lot of people that I meet that I call "service people." They fix my appliances, they work at the desk at the YMCA, they take up tickets at the stadium, they clean my board at school and empty the trash, etc. The service or "eggs" is the part I am after and the provider or "mother bird" is disposable to me.

Actually to some people, I am the service person. I teach their kids and to them the kids are all that matters and I am "disposable." How does that make you feel when the person takes what you provide but they discard you?

That is like getting the eggs from the bird and eating the eggs but throwing away the mother bird. Gracious! Today as I run my errands, I want to make the provider more important that the provision.