The Blood Sparrow

The Blood Sparrow

 by Danny C. Wash                                                                                                               

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. Matthew 10:29

    It was a hot day like any other day as the sparrow flitted about and flew up above the rooftops where the breeze was cooler.

    He spotted a crowd outside the city gates and flew there looking for food. He fluttered down and saw soldiers and people looking up at something.

    The sparrow saw the familiar sight of men hanging on wooden things with a long piece of wood stuck in the ground and another piece across it. That day there were three men hanging on these things on this hill that looked like a man’s skull. He had seen this before and knew there might be crumbs around where the crowd stood and watched men die in agony. 

    The sparrow knew he had to be careful because buzzards were around circling where the smell of death, blood, and urine hung in the air. He was attracted to the middle wood thing and he flittered around and lit on it.

    He heard the people screaming at the man who had thorns sticking in his head. The sparrow was drawn to the man with the bloody beaten body and face. The sparrow flapped his wings above the man as he was heaving to breath hoping the wind from his wings would bring cool air to the man gasping for air.  Seeing he was doing little good, the sparrow sent a sparrow signal (in the way sparrows do) to his other sparrow friends to come and help. Soon they arrived and began to flitter and flap above the man to create more cooling breeze to perhaps help him breathe.

    Somehow, all the sparrows sensed this man was different from the others. The sparrow saw a soldier lift a rag soaked with something up to the man. He heard the man’s cry pierce the air and then darkness fell and with it cold deadly air.

    After awhile, the man shouted some words and his thorn-crowned head dropped forward. He was dead and a shiver went through the sparrow’s body in the deep darkness. 

    As the light slowly returned one of the soldiers thrust a spear into the dead man’s side. Blood spurted everywhere and some even splashed on the sparrow’s head.  The sparrow felt the blood on his head and it was warm and comforting. The other sparrows saw this and began to call him- the blood sparrow.

    The soldiers pulled the dead man down and tossed him on the ground. Women standing nearby screamed and cried in anguish and pain as the body fell. The buzzards circled closer hungrily sniffing their beloved smell of death. Some men wrapped the body in cloth rags and began carrying it away. 

    All the sparrows flew high above the men who took the body to a tomb nearby. The sparrows watched the tomb, taking turns while sensing something important might happen.  And then when the sun left and returned three times after the man was put in the tomb, 
it happened.

 
    In the dim of dawn when the blood sparrow was on watch he saw something moving. There stood a large glimmering man-like figure he had never seen before and it had wings. The winged figure pointed at the huge stone and there was shaking like an earthquake and noise like thunder as the huge round stone rumbled backwards revealing the inside of the tomb.

 
    The sparrow flew to the opening and the winged figure was removing the grave clothes from the man and he was alive and moving around. His face glowed with a warm light. The once dead man now alive walked out of the tomb and the sparrows were amazed. 

    The sparrows followed him for days wherever he went watching as he talked to people.  All the sparrows felt drawn to the man, stayed with him, and found plenty of food.

    After the full moon had come and gone and returned, the man went to a hill nearby their town. The man said some words (like men do) to his followers and then He began to rise into the air. The sparrows were amazed because he was lifting in the air like them but with no wings. The blood sparrow and the others flew around His head as He continued upward.  And then suddenly He was gone from their presence swallowed by what looked like a cloud.

    They thought to each other (as sparrows do)-this was the One who cared for us and still does. The blood sparrow then begin to tell other sparrows (in sparrow language) the story of the Man and how the blood sparrow got the red mark on his head and all what he saw. He even told some other birds because his heart burned within him when he did. And the blood sparrow told them about how the Man died and came back to life.

    Everywhere he flew he told them how the Man had cared for him and still does and that He would care for them and when they flew for the last time and fall to the ground (as sparrows do), He would still care for them and they would someday fly in a new world the Man would create. The Man would be King of this new and better world and take care of them as before. And He would not care if they flew around His head that had a Golden Crown on it where the thorn crown had once rested.  And there would be no buzzards because there would be no death. 

    Then other sparrows asked him in sparrow language how he knew these things were true and the blood sparrow said, “The Man’s blood on my head tells me so.”