A few years ago Donn and our grandson, Connor, built a birdhouse. It was a great little house, and we were excited when a pair of wrens came to build a nest. But almost immediately an English sparrow showed up to bully the wrens. He would stick his head into the hole and even try to enter while Mama and Papa wren were home, or go right in when they weren’t. I was furious at this invasion, and soon Donn made a smaller hole in a board, just the right size to fit over the first entryway, and nailed it in place.

I have to admit I took great delight in watching that bully try his best to get into our little blue birdhouse, poking his head repeatedly, and fruitlessly, into the hole. He continues to do this every year during nesting season, and I’m still ecstatic each time he fails.

At first I wanted to focus on what lesson I could learn from the foolish behavior of the sparrow─and there are many. But instead, I found myself thinking about my reaction to his failure. Why do I feel triumphant and happy, even gleeful, every time he tries to shove his head through that tiny opening? Could it be that most of us desperately want to see bullies brought to justice, or at least fail resoundingly? And that we hate it when they seem to get away with brutish behavior and make innocent “wrens” suffer?

I think we feel like the psalmist who said, “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold,” (Psalm 73:2) when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. He talks about the carefree lives these “bullies” appeared to lead in comparison to his own, implying he’d gained nothing by keeping his heart pure and doing what’s right. He can’t make sense of it. Ever feel that way? I have.

But God didn’t leave the psalm writer there. In verse 17 Asaph says, “When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” (emphasis added) Ah, there you have it. When we enter the sanctuary of God, when we allow Him to show us an eternal perspective, we remember that our lives here are fleeting. Living with eternity in view reminds us it isn’t the outcomes here but the final destiny that really matters.  At last, with eternity in view, the psalmist recognizes it’s the wicked, the bullies, who are on “slippery ground” (Psalm 73:18).

Does that mean we don’t fight the bullies (English sparrows) when it’s in our power to do it? That we just stand passively by waiting for them to receive their “final destiny?” Not on your life. Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did it for me” (Matthew 25:43), and “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed” (Proverbs 31:8). So we do all we can, but we do it with eternity in view and the knowledge that this life is not all there is.

We were created for Eden and all of us, in one way or another, yearn for perfection─a perfect world, perfect justice, perfect outcomes. But if we want to be content as the Apostle Paul says he learned to be, we have to accept that we will never get perfection here. Because for perfect, we have to wait for heaven.

Father, Show us how to fight the “bullies” in our lives without losing the contentment that comes from maintaining a heavenly perspective. Amen