HELEN SANDERS
3-25-2026
PRICKERS IN THE NEST

I enjoy watching birds. From the tiny bird’s egg that will bring new life, to the baby strong enough to fly, we see the mother and the father of the new babies work hard to train their young. When the babies get to a certain point where they can fly, the parents push them out of the nest, teaching them to fly. They don’t naturally want to fly. They feel secure in the nest with mom and dad feeding them. The parent bird will fly near that young one as it tries out its wings. This happens several times until the baby bird builds confidence in flying by itself.

When the baby birds are old enough to leave the nest and start a life of their own, often the mother and father birds put prickers in the nest. Stepping on those prickers is not comfortable for those baby birds, and eventually the baby birds leave the nest for good and fly away, starting their own new life. If the prickers weren’t there, chances are the baby bird would continuously let mom and dad feed them because that was the comfortable life.

God does the same thing with us. When it is time for a new assignment, He often allows prickers, or thorns into our lives to cause us to spread our wings and fly. Those prickers and thorns do not feel good but without them we would keep holding on to what we must let go of and never mature and would not finish our assignment.

Sometimes those prickers cause us to move on from relationships that are harmful to us. Sometimes those prickers hurt so bad that we cry and plead with God to remove them. Whatever the case may be, it isn’t God trying to hurt us. It is God helping us to spread our wings and fly just like the baby birds parents did to them.

Not all prickers come from the devil. They are used by God to define us and refine us. Look at them as steps in a ladder to get closer to God.