Lessons from the birds

Yesterday I was thinking about the birds.  They never go hungry and they are all within the loving eye gaze of our Heavenly Father.

Today as I bustled around the house putting things away and cleaning, I heard a rather loud thump outside our bedroom window.  I walked over and upon further examination, just beneath our window, I saw a small, brown bird, fluttering and moving about, trying to get up after flying (crashing) into the window.  The sheer volume of the collision made me wonder if the crash had injured it beyond recovery.

I caught myself by surprise as I verbally spoke to it – “Get up!”

“Get up, you can do it.”

I am not an animal person, but today, I was.

My eyes began to well with tears as I watched it, trying and trying to pull itself up, and after a few more moments of straining, it stopped moving completely, and laid it’s head down.

I couldn’t believe it – a bird died all alone, right in front of my eyes.  (This is coming from someone who only had one dog growing up.  My sisters and I were all devastated when she died – I just can’t handle any kind of suffering.)

Then a few hours later, I remembered… yesterday I was thinking about the birds.  And worry.

Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter. They don’t plant gardens. They do not sow or reap—and yet, they are always fed because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are even more precious to Him than a beautiful bird. If He looks after them, of course He will look after youWorrying does not do any good; who here can claim to add even an hour to his life by worrying?

Matthew 6:26-27, The Voice

Oh, how I worry.  I worry about anything and everything.  What people think about me, what I will eat, how I will accomplish this or that… some days, it consumes me.

And then there was this bird.  Seen.  Fed by God.  The bird that died in front of me (and its body is still on the roof in front of our window… we should probably do something about that soon).  And how much more than this bird are we, mankind, known, loved, cared for and seen by our Heavenly Father.  Humans made in God’s image, of course he cares so deeply for us.  He sent his only son for us, to die and rise again, so we could be adopted into his family and redeemed.

There is no reason to worry.

Yesterday I was thinking about the birds, but today I am thinking about how loved and cared for we are by our Heavenly Father.

“So why should I worry?  Why do I freak out?  God knows what I need, he knows what I need.” – Jon Foreman

lessons from the birds

Prayer to Creator God

Father God,
Creator of all things –
the sun, the sky, the trees and all that we see,
the one whose voice said “let there BE,”
And there was.

The one whose voice still speaks to us today.

We open our hearts and our ears to hear you speak again
for You are God alone
and we are humbled to be in your presence today.

God,
who creates
will you create in us today a new understanding of who you are,
so that we may love you in a new way today, and each day.

Thank you for your creative work all around us
and thank you for creating us to also create
and do good works through Your Son, Jesus Christ and we pray these things in His name,

Amen.

creation