Lovingly Weaving Your Family’s Nest

One day last spring, morning coffee in-hand, I noticed my dog’s curiosity about an object in my backyard. Hmm… A bit too curious perhaps, so I went outside to see what he found. To my delight he had his nose deep in a bird’s nest. There were no broken shells nearby, so I guessed it had long been abandoned and fallen during heavy winds the night before. I held it in my hand and marveled at the old bird family’s nest.

Frank Lloyd Wright might be the greatest modern human architect of houses, but to me, nests are the most precious homes ever built.

This one had twigs, but also bits of colored string and fluff (dryer fluff?) woven into it. When I see a nest, I imagine a mother bird looking for just the right materials and creating something she may not understand but somehow knows is right. She might not be able to find the perfect tree—but she will build a perfect nest, and she will build it to be strong, to last.

The other thing I love about nests is that they’re different but all just right for the ones who will live in them.

Penguins don’t have much to work with, but they build a nest out of rocks and sit on it to keep it warm and protected from the weather.

Wrens go all out and build a fully covered beautiful dome nest.

At the other extreme, crows are a bit messy in their nest building, but they’re built to last.

Nests are built out of rocks, mud, twigs. There are even birds that build nests that float on the water—nature’s houseboats for sure.

Thinking about nests led me to reflect on the many moves I’ve made with my family. We haven’t always had the luxury of the perfect “tree” (or our top choice of cities to move to), but deep in my heart, no matter where we moved, I wanted to make a home that would nurture and protect my family.

Beyond the “tree” is the nest itself. We had one move where we had very little choice of housing and, truth be told, I couldn’t stand the house we ended up in, but it was the best of the lot. I never really warmed to the physical building, and I wasn’t sad when we moved to another city a couple of years later.

One thing I could change at that house was the wall color. When we moved in, the whole thing was beige. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear I painted the living room Robin’s Egg Blue. I needed to do little things that would reflect me, not unlike the bird weaving the red string into her nest. I’m into florals, so my bright purple peony welcome mat would brighten my day when I entered the door with arms full of groceries.

That said, I did strive to look beyond the physical walls and “weave” some other elements into our home. I tried to prioritize inner attributes—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—a core part of our family life.

Did I always do it perfectly? No, of course not—far from it.

But like a mother bird after a squall, I would try to repair things as best I could when needed.

Now my husband and I have the label of “empty nesters.” Those two words make me smile, because we still need a strong nest for the two of us and the dog and the “kids” who descend over the holidays. Neighbors stop by, and when it’s my turn, I host my Bunco group.

A few years ago, I was at a hobby store and among the jillions of items to craft with, I found some small (maybe 2-inch diameter) manufactured nests. In another section I picked up a little bag of teeny plastic eggs ,which I glued into the nests. 

Now when a friend moves, I give her a little nest to take with her to remind her of the new home she’ll be creating, to remind her to build her new nest with the inner attributes valued in her family in order to create a safe haven for the season they’ll be living in there.

To remind her that, her nest will weather the storms of life.

By Jamie Vukelich, Director of Social Media at Just Moved Ministry

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