Considering SparrowsSample

Day 2

ALBATROSS COMMITMENT

The world’s old­est known individual wild bird is a Lay­san Albatross named Wisdom. First banded by scientists in 1956 in Hawaii, Wisdom is currently at least seventy-four years old.

Laysan Albatrosses are renowned for their committed life­long monogamy—a quality that’s showcased in their elaborate pair-bonding rituals. But when Wisdom’s partner Akeakamai (clever: it’s Hawaiian for “lover of wisdom”) didn’t show up at the breeding grounds in 2021 and 2022, it became appar­ent that Wisdom had outlived her mate—a sixty-year partner­ship had come to its end.

In Philippians, we’re invited to eavesdrop on another faithful partner­ship in progress. Paul’s opening salutation commends the Phi­lippians for their steadfast commitment. “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3-5 NIV). Paul and the Philippians have a wing-tip-to-wing-tip partnership, overflowing with the lan­guage and pathos of faithful commitment.

But what really inspires Paul isn’t the horizontal commit­ment but the vertical one. As enduring as this church-and-missionary partnership is, it pales in comparison with the grip of grace—the unrelenting love of a tenacious God: “Being con­fident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 NIV). Put simply, God finishes what he starts.

Even the best earthly commitments will eventually end, just like Wisdom’s. But the spiritual pair-bond between God and his people is ironclad. Despite our failure and rebellion, God traces a consistent story of perse­vering love all the way to a cross that says, to his first disciples and to us, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1 NIV).

Beyond the grave, and to the final throne, he remains just as faithful.

Where are you tempted to doubt that God will finish what he has begun in you? What might it look like to entrust that unfinished work to him?