Look at the Birds
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:26
Our house is surrounded by deep woods which are home to many creatures. We regularly see deer, raccoons, chipmunks, and even an occasional groundhog.
A few years back we noticed a den of foxes and just this week saw our first coyote.
However, despite the pleasure we take in seeing these four-legged creatures, we find even greater joy in all of the birds that make our woods “home.”
We’ve put up feeders near our deck and regularly receive visits from yellow finches, purple finches, cardinals, wrens, chickadees, juncos, nuthatches, tufted titmice, and a wide variety of woodpeckers.
A few of our “guests” just pass through for a week or so: orioles, grossbeaks, indigo buntings, and scarlet tanagers.
Our favorites, however, are the bluebirds who come back every year. We’re doing our best to take care of them, protecting them from predators and buying special food. We even joined a Facebook group called “Bluebird Landlords.”
As I write this there are five eggs in our bluebird house which I’m monitoring carefully. They will hatch in a couple of weeks and then we’ll see a new bunch of baby blues.
He Watches Over Me
In thinking of how we are so attentive to our feathered friends, a section of Scripture came to mind that reminded me that as God’s children, we are under His watchful gaze and tender care.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
(Matthew 6: 25, 26 ESV)
In the eyes of God, no one is insignificant, especially the child of God.
In 1904, a songwriter, Mrs. Civilla Martin, visited a bedridden friend and asked if the woman ever got discouraged because of her physical condition. Her friend replied: “Mrs. Martin, how can I be discouraged when my heavenly Father watches over little sparrows and I know that He loves and cares for me?”
On her journey home, Civilla composed the lyrics to a hymn, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” which has since been a blessing and an encouragement to so many of God’s people.
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
Refrain:
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
Perhaps you are feeling discouraged or worried at the moment as you enter an uncertain season. You may want to be reminded that there are no challenges or situations we face that God cannot handle.
He is an all-knowing, all-seeing God who keeps his eyes on us and watches over us by day and night. “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry” (Psalm 34:15 ESV).
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