Here 'tis folks, the official meaning, from an interview with Reese by JFH:
These two things actually happened to me when I was a kid, about two years apart: I found a dying starling in our yard and unsuccessfully tried to save it, when I was ten. When I was twelve, a friend and I were shooting cans with my dad's BB gun from our porch. We got bored and started shooting birds, but only pumping it one or two times so it would barely graze them. But the gun had a slow air leak, so we kept pumping it while we waited. I made this incredible shot, where I followed a starling flying into a dryer vent in the apartment building I lived in, but because we had pumped it so many times, I actually killed the bird. Not only that, but in doing so, I later realized that I had killed all of the baby birds it was trying to feed in its nest. It was devastating to me as a twelve year old, because I had never thought through what I was doing, the fact that we could be hurting birds, or that we might actually kill one. I remember that I spent the next four days trying to climb up to that vent so that I could save the baby birds. For the first few days, I could hear them crying out for their mother, but that slowly became weaker over time, until the fourth day, when it stopped. I broke down into tears on the second day and decided to tell my dad, whose response was that I should try to save them myself, reasoning that it was I who had caused the problem in the first place. By the third day, he tried to help me by boosting me up to the vent, but I couldn't reach in because it was partially obscured by a screen. Because we lived in an apartment, we didn't have a ladder, or even know anyone who did. It was a very hard lesson to learn.
I think that my views on life, and the sacredness of life come from experiences such as this. I feel like we, as humans, can only take life, but can never really give it. If Scriptures tell us that God cares about each and every sparrow that falls, in light of these experiences, I wanted to say something about us as the Church being concerned with saving and respecting all life. I just wanted to make a statement about life being sacred and special. Not just the lives of animals, but babies, and criminals, and our enemies. If we are to interpret Scripture by the actions and life of Jesus Christ and His disciples, then we should be conscious of the value of life. I know that this will upset a lot of people, because the issues of gun control, abortion, and capitol punishment have become highly politicized, so I would just like to address that by saying that we should see the world through the eyes of Christ, and not through the eyes of whatever political party we feel supports or opposes these heavy issues that we have already made up our minds about. All life is sacred and we are called as humankind to be stewards over it. I think God leaves it up to us to figure out what that means, and to what extent we believe that. Not to say that hunting is wrong, because I think it can be done respectfully, and with care for the world and God's creation. I just wanted this song to paint a picture of our burden as Christians for stewardship over the earth. It is a call to be merciful to those who have wronged us, and especially to take care of those who cannot help themselves - both people and animals.
Here 'tis folks, the official meaning, from an interview with Reese by JFH:
These two things actually happened to me when I was a kid, about two years apart: I found a dying starling in our yard and unsuccessfully tried to save it, when I was ten. When I was twelve, a friend and I were shooting cans with my dad's BB gun from our porch. We got bored and started shooting birds, but only pumping it one or two times so it would barely graze them. But the gun had a slow air leak, so we kept pumping it while we waited. I made this incredible shot, where I followed a starling flying into a dryer vent in the apartment building I lived in, but because we had pumped it so many times, I actually killed the bird. Not only that, but in doing so, I later realized that I had killed all of the baby birds it was trying to feed in its nest. It was devastating to me as a twelve year old, because I had never thought through what I was doing, the fact that we could be hurting birds, or that we might actually kill one. I remember that I spent the next four days trying to climb up to that vent so that I could save the baby birds. For the first few days, I could hear them crying out for their mother, but that slowly became weaker over time, until the fourth day, when it stopped. I broke down into tears on the second day and decided to tell my dad, whose response was that I should try to save them myself, reasoning that it was I who had caused the problem in the first place. By the third day, he tried to help me by boosting me up to the vent, but I couldn't reach in because it was partially obscured by a screen. Because we lived in an apartment, we didn't have a ladder, or even know anyone who did. It was a very hard lesson to learn.
I think that my views on life, and the sacredness of life come from experiences such as this. I feel like we, as humans, can only take life, but can never really give it. If Scriptures tell us that God cares about each and every sparrow that falls, in light of these experiences, I wanted to say something about us as the Church being concerned with saving and respecting all life. I just wanted to make a statement about life being sacred and special. Not just the lives of animals, but babies, and criminals, and our enemies. If we are to interpret Scripture by the actions and life of Jesus Christ and His disciples, then we should be conscious of the value of life. I know that this will upset a lot of people, because the issues of gun control, abortion, and capitol punishment have become highly politicized, so I would just like to address that by saying that we should see the world through the eyes of Christ, and not through the eyes of whatever political party we feel supports or opposes these heavy issues that we have already made up our minds about. All life is sacred and we are called as humankind to be stewards over it. I think God leaves it up to us to figure out what that means, and to what extent we believe that. Not to say that hunting is wrong, because I think it can be done respectfully, and with care for the world and God's creation. I just wanted this song to paint a picture of our burden as Christians for stewardship over the earth. It is a call to be merciful to those who have wronged us, and especially to take care of those who cannot help themselves - both people and animals.