Life Lessons From the Birds

If you follow my daily posts at all, you’ll know I seem to be fixated on birds. I’ve shared about the cardinal family that visited my home in Tulsa, who set up housekeeping (nesting) in the tree behind my bedroom window and how I liked to think that the daddy cardinal was sent by my sweetheart when I could use a little kiss from heaven. I also shared about the swallows that I wasn’t so fond of, that set up housekeeping on my front porch where I tried all kinds of tricks to get rid of them because, unfortunately, their poop wasn’t exactly the “welcoming mat” I wanted for my visitors.

I shared about the birds who, with their stealth vision, would watch for a customer leave their table at an outdoor restaurant, and would zero in on what little scraps they left in their plates. To correspond with that analogy, I used the scripture reference: Matthew 6:26 “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?” Indeed those birds had the Father’s “royal treatment” as they only needed to hover until their prey (rather, food scraps) were wide open for their taking.

My grandson, Payton, does “handyman” jobs for people in his neighborhood. One of his customers gave him three birdhouses/feeders. He was delighted with his new aviaries, setting them up in great areas of their backyard, filling them with feed and keeping a close eye on his visitors. Before long all kinds of birds were making their home in their back yard, including this nest that would soon have eggs in it. Daily, Payton and Alexia checked their tenants' progress, but before long, they saw that, though the eggs were still there (pictured here), holes were in the sides where a predator had sucked out the contents. That little safe haven met up with very bad tidings.

Alexia, with her heart for the cardinals who had worked so hard to make their nest a protected home, proceeded to see if she could provide easy access to their building materials in case they wanted to start over again. She proceeded to take the nest apart – laying out all the materials on their outdoor table: ribbons, string, sticks, fabric and other materials. After she had it all sorted out, she exclaimed: “Come cardinals. NEST DEPOT is open for business.” LOL! Such is life with Lexi!

With all my ramblings about birds, I think we are in good company. Jesus used birds in many of his illustrated sermons to explain God’s love for us. He said in Matthew 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care.” God does provide care for the sparrows, and the fact that "not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's care" means that sometimes bad things can happen, like the cardinal eggs at the Wallace's. Although He watches over the sparrows, it doesn’t prevent them from being hunted by predators. Although He watches over every one of us, it doesn’t mean that our lives will be free from care. He even went on to say to us “…you are of more value than many sparrows" Matthew 10:31. So if God is concerned about the tiny sparrow, how much greater must His concern be for us. Bottom line, we are told to be care-less. There is no place for worry in the life of a sparrow, and they carry on. For them AND us, worry is needless, wears us out and keeps us from living our lives knowing the eyes of our Father are on us.

God's care for us is immeasurable -- He allowed His only begotten Son to die in our place (John 3:16).

God's care for us will sustain us throughout our lives, because “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28)

For the birds, Alexia made a Nest Depot for their building supplies. Our place of refuge, for life's building materials and the how to's for building a rock-solid foundation is found at God's Word Depot. Maybe if we would spend more time in those aisles, we'd find all the supplies we need for a worry-free, care-free life!