This morning I began my daily routine of brewing coffee and looking out my patio door watching birds come and go from my feeder. I remembered once again a written expression I had intended to form several months ago.
I remembered making a brief comment online in January that I planned to write about birds that day – after Facebook brought up a memory from the previous January 2020 where I photographed my feet in black socks touching the floor for the first time that day in somewhat obscure half-darkness. In that post I had commented about mornings, putting one’s feet on the floor and walking forward in the face of fear and dread.
One friend said she looked forward to reading about birds, so this is, in part, my promise to her that I would write it and let her know when it was available to read.
Normally my writings here take much time to format when they are interspersed with visual images – but today I gave myself a different creative writing challenge:
Keep it 1,000 words or less and let the reader create their own mental images. Since a picture is worth a thousand words.
So in January 2021 after the online reminder of how far my feet have come, I also thought how far it still feels I have to go and as my original January 2020 post said, every morning still seems to bring a sense of fear and dread with those first steps on the floor.
_____
What will happen to me today?
And unlike the birds who may not think beyond the present moment – I also think what will happen to me tomorrow – and the next day and the next day and the next day….as I also carry with me all that has happened in my yesterdays.
So while watching birds finding food that I put in a feeder, amidst the January snow, I thought of Jesus saying,
“ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 26: 26-27)
_____
In my mind’s eye, I imagine this biblical image of free-spirited birds darting and dancing low in a sunny flower field – birds that have no care for anything and especially no fear – as they freely receive from God.
Had Jesus never watched a bird before?
Certainly in His time birds would land near humans to steal away morsels of sustenance… didn’t the eye of God also observe what I saw?
I did not see a carefree Little Sparrow coming to my feeder. I saw a bird that appeared to be quite anxious and fearful.
The bird checked to their left and right rapidly, looking every which way for potential threats. They’d taste a morsel and then suddenly fly away as though fleeing some unseen predator – into a tree six feet away only to watch again from every direction before attempting a return.
These birds that God cares so deeply about and provides for do not behave like sheep – or even goats – who leisurely graze all day long seeming to have not a care in the world.
These birds are hypervigilant, rapidly looking over their shoulders in every direction possible for any fate that could befall them while trying to survive.
Yet, these birds sing the most beautiful songs – sometimes all day and night long. Such a disparity.
They do not inhabit the air space of the more predatory birds but their world is one of constant access to small joys and abundances. Perhaps that is why God made these little ones so very fast and so very aware and needing so very little to survive.
Of all the nature images Jesus might have selected, He chose these small and seemingly powerless anxiety-ridden creatures to explain the care of our Heavenly Father who does not require them to be anxiety free to receive what they need, or to be loved.
And amazingly we are told not one falls to the earth without God’s witness.
Thank You For Reading
Please Feel Free To Express Your Thoughts Below
Thank You For Reading
Please Feel Free To Express Your Thoughts Below
