The Seagulls are Everywhere!

It’s not uncommon for me to be inspired for a blog from the “birds of a feather that flock together”, so here I go again! Yesterday morning, I was “perched” in my lawn chair at 6 am here at Aransas Bay on the Texas Gulf Coast, praying for the inspiration for tomorrow’s blog. The brilliant sun was rising and seagulls were walking stealthily along the ocean's edge for their next fish or mussel treat. They’d grab a bite to eat then fly away. Then another would land right in front of me.

Jesus talked so much about birds. In Matthew 6:26 He tells His followers not to be anxious about food, but to rely on God as the birds do, who are worth far less than the people He provides for. I started thinking about how privileged those birds are to live where food is so abundant. As I ate a bite of my protein bar, I remembered my granddaughter eating chips from her kayak and being attacked by seagulls. Sharing wasn’t what she had in mind and neither was I. I quickly shoved that bar in my mouth -- quickly! Those seagulls don’t seem to have a preference for land or sea food!

Are those birds really “privileged” or do they have an innate sense of being who they were destined to be? “Privileged” is a word we’ve heard in abundance in the last few weeks. “Privileged” as in born into wealth or born in a certain ethnicity or born into a specific family of origin.

Let’s consider who the real privileged folks are! I am saying that with happy thoughts daily because I choose to believe that I was born into privilege as a member of the royal family of God. I was born into a family that believed that and so did I. As children of God, we are privileged with abundance, but we must step out in faith and go for the opportunities that are just waiting for us. When we receive Christ by faith, we become His children. We are adopted into His family. "But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." - John 1:12.

In Matthew 6, Jesus put it this way “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (privileges) shall be added to you.”

Indeed, we are privileged to be children of God Who daily offers us so many blessings. It's time for us to recognize our privileges like living in a free country, having a roof over our head, running water, a warm bed to sleep in, and plenty of food to eat. Yes, we are privileged.

They Leave the Nest -- But They'll Be Back

They Leave the Nest -- But They'll Be Back
For those who have followed the tales of my dove family who took up occupancy on my fireplace vent on my patio several weeks ago, I'm pleased to report the babies are on their own and have left the nest. I couldn't check on them until Monday morning since I had been away for a week and didn't get home until Sunday night. The nest was empty so I knew they had finally learned to fly and had left the nest. I saw the poop and debris left behind and determined to get out my super-powered cleaning solution and remove the nest and all the other gunk. But to my surprise, as I sat on my patio, I saw the "teenagers" (Yikes! I was surprised to see, how in just a week's time, they had grown so much!) come back home. I'm acting like a proud grandmother because I couldn't help but show you their photo! LOL! They must have remembered the kind homeowner who checked on them daily, and they were fine with my visit. I am unceasingly amazed at God’s creation.

Of course, the spiritual and natural connotations hit me in these tender moments. All of us develop, mature and become confident enough to leave the "nest" where we were nurtured and where we developed the sense of being able to make it in this world on our own. Maybe it was when we went to college or joined the armed forces, or got married, or were simply ready to tackle the world on our own. But, like those birds, many of us enjoy going back home for a while. We need that cozy, warm, safe place where we didn't have to make our own way. There were hugs and cheers and encouragement when we went home, and for many of us, we needed much more than just a short visit, we needed to stay a while and regroup and rethink where we'd go from here. We needed to get our confidence back.

Our relationship with God is similar to the birds AND us returning to our nests. Oftentimes, we're strong, making it just fine on our own, handling life and all that it throws at us. But then there are those times of disappointment, discouragement, fear and these strong spiritual beings find ourselves languishing and we need a pep talk and a shoulder to cry on and the familiarity of someone we love and trust to wrap their arms around us and tell us "Everything's gonna be alright!" We can count on our loving Father every time for that assurance, but after a little coddling, He gives us a nudge out the door (or the nest) to resume as the strong, determined, full-of-faith children He raised us to be. St. Paul said it like this: "When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things." 1 Corinthians 13:11

God gave us everything we need to be strong, mature, powerful and empowered overcomers in this life. He gave us every tool, every promise, every key we need for success through the cross of Christ and His Word. Romans 8:29 says "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." God lovingly welcomes us to return to His nest when we need a refresher on how much He loves and cares for us, but His Gospel message brings more than good news to us. It bids us to fly AND it gives us wings to do so!

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!