The Common Significant

I watch as they scatter seed, flitting to and fro. I find myself a bit frustrated, disappointed, with their constancy. Each cold morning, I long to see some color, hear a sweet song, but it's always the same: drab brown, small and numerous. More often than not, if I spy a flock of birds, they are the same. Scatter crumbs and who comes calling? You guessed it. The same.
These robust little feathered creatures seem to be everywhere.
This morning, when I heaved a sigh of disappointment over the lack of color or song at my bird feeder, it hit me.  It is these same, common, birds that Jesus uses to illustrate our value.
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Luke 12:6-7 NIV
These drab birds, these numerous creatures, these ordinary-everyday-sparrows are a blatant reminder of you and I. Aren't we run-of-the-mill? Don't we make up the majority? It seems we are always looking, I'm always looking, for the flashy and showy, or we try to be the spectacular ones. Somehow, in our minds, those are the ones that count.
Yet here is Jesus using them to communicate significance.
It doesn't matter if I am ordinary.
It doesn't matter if I am even drab, or boring or lack distinction.
None of that matters.
I. Am. Not. Forgotten.
He knows every detail of my world, my being. He is paying attention. To. Me.
I can choose to continue in my longing for the “lovely” as I watch the activities outside my window, or I can enjoy the common significant. If I pay attention, I can even be a witness to a dance of the remembered. For those sparrows? They are the common ones, the remembered ones, mentioned by God, just like me.