Killdeer....

Watchful....

"Her broken wing dance.."

"Hidden eggs"

Killdeer.....

Spring has come to some parts of the country...with birds working in nests, some with eggs, some still in the building phases....

While walking this past week, a killdeer would pop up and run away from her nest trying to draw us away from her precious eggs...she would plop down with her broken wing act, doing this over and over .....pretending to be hurt so that we would be more interested in her than her eggs...

We searched diligently for her eggs as they are so hidden in plain sight, camouflaged by their colors of white and speckled brown amongst the rocks with similar colors...

We finally found the nest about two feet off of the gravel road...four eggs on a pile of rocks and straw...looking like the surroundings...all the while the mother looking on with her song and dance of distraction..."please, please leave my family alone"...."watch me instead"...over and over again....giving her act and life in return for the safety of those eggs and future generations of  killdeer .....

King Solomon had to make a decision about the life of baby many years ago...the real mother ready to sacrifice her child for its life...while the fake mother was ready to put to death the child...Solomon knew how to tell the real from the fake by the love shown...with the real one ready to save the life of the child by her own sacrifice...just as this killdeer was ready to draw attention to itself to save the lives of her eggs...

What we mothers will do for our family.....we love them so much ....just as Christ laid down His life for our salvation .... Willingly...sacrificially...freely...that we might have life everlasting .... By our belief in Him...

Thank YOU for the sacrificial love.....You took my place ...bore my sins...on the cross ....

Romans 3:25a God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness,....

Ephesians 5:2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 

1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

1 Kings 3:17-18, 20-28 One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. 

We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. 

She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.” The other woman said, 

“No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king. The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’” 

Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.” 

The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!” Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.” 

When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.