Crows in your attic?

Last summer I lived in our trailer during the covid lockdown to make it feel like I was camping. While there I found that I had new neighbors, a pair of crows. They had built a big nest nest to me in the rafters of our pole barn. No big deal right? Ha! They had three babies, loud babies, from dawn till 10 am crying babies. Oh ya. At first I hated them, so loud all the time. Then as a week went by and then another I learned to love them. I named them and would call to them when I walked by, and they learned my voice and responded to me. The cawing I hated became the sound of a friend. Did you know that crows learn to recognize your voice so they can avoid you if you are an enemy? These ones learned to trust me as a friend, and now that they have moved on because a racoon destroyed their nest this year, I miss them.
Isn’t that the way it is with people? You can learn to hate them, to hate things about them and to want them gone, but then after you get to know them you sometimes realize that they are actually great! That you eventually can’t imagine life without them and miss them when they are gone. Just like my ugly feathered friends, the more you get to know and understand these people – the more they welcome you into their circle, the more you learn to care about them. Maybe that’s why Jesus had his disciples eat with other people, spend time with other people oh, and get to know them beyond where they stood in the community. Because He knew that when you open yourself up to others you learn more about yourself and are more accepting those around you. 
I am grateful for my ugly feathered friends teaching me the lesson of learning to love those around you, even if they are noisy and messy and oh so very loud.