Teaching Life Lessons

When we first moved to this house a very big woodpidgeon flew into the large window at the back of our house during a really rainy day and died. We figured this to be the case as there was a bird outline on the window, it probably thought that our window was just an extension of the garden seeing the reflection in it.
 I had not yet developed my appreciation for the beautiful birds so I let husband dispose of the bird and that was the end of it.
A few days ago when baby boy was on the potty we were looking at the garden talking about what we could see trees, birds leaves and so on when I noticed a dead bird lying on the ground right by the window where we were. It was a goldfinch and a baby one at that with a fly flying around it. I knew it couldn't have been there very long as it wasn't there at the last potty trip. I felt sad seeing the fly buzzing around it and so I went outside to see what I could do.
I put it into a cardboard box and then went on the internet to see what I could do with it. I just didn't feel right throwing it away like a piece of rubbish it looked so beautiful like it was just asleep.
Now don't get me wrong I know it was only a bird one that I hadn't even seen before as it was a baby and it wasn't even technically a pet either but seeing the little creature there all I could think was that this little bird was recently alive flying around, a creature of our marvelous creator and I felt like it needed to be buried.
All the girls and baby boy were interested to see the little bird many times actually and baby boy even wanted to touch it which I didn't think was such a good idea though.
We waited for husband to get home and before bedtime we went into the garden to bury the little goldfinch. We talked about how we should thank God for making such a lovely bird, for making all of the animals and for giving us life too. We talked about appreciating our lives that are a gift from God, and then we sang 'All Things Bright And Beautiful' as husband put it into the ground. There were even a few tears too.
Maybe some of you might think this all sound a bit much but I felt it was important to help the children see the importance of life and that life also ends. As they have not known the hard grief of loosing a person that they know or love I felt this could give them a small insight into somthing they will eventually have to deal with. As parents we are constantly trying to prepare them for whats to come in their future, so this was a perfect opportunity to do that and remind them that God is in control of all things.
"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time"    1 Peter 5:6