I never cease to be amazed by birds. Just the idea of inventing living feathered creatures that fly about is wonderful to me. Who would have thought that one up?
And of course they sing! Last week I was walking in the glorious bluebell woods near our home when I saw a man, camera in hand, looking up into the trees overhead.
“Seen something interesting?” I enquired. “ I can hear a woodpecker”’ he answered, “and I would love to take a photo.” There followed a long and interesting conversation, (at a safe distance of course) about how to identify birds from their songs. I was fascinated, and when he suggested I buy a CD of birdsong from Amazon, it was the first thing I did when I got home.
Many birds visit our garden feeders and I identified twenty in the first few weeks of our residence here. Sometimes I wake in the night to hear a screech owl, or the haunting hoot of a barn owl. One morning at five o’clock in April two years ago, I heard a cuckoo loudly calling: and last week we were excited to see a lesser spotted woodpecker in our garden.
So where am I going with this? Simply that I think Jesus watched birds too. He watched farmers planting seed and the birds following the sower and stealing the seed. He knew how much they sold for in the market place: one penny for two! He said that God fed and clothed the birds and the lilies, so why should we be worried about provision for our food and clothes? He knows our needs , like he knows the needs of birds. He also notices when a sparrow falls to the ground! Imagine! The demise of such a fragile little thing is registered by God Almighty! So be assured, he really sees you too.
King David was also aware of birds. One day he was in the courts of the Lord and he noticed a sparrow’s nest near the altar. (Psalm 84) No-one else was allowed to get so near the altar, but God permitted a sparrow to rest there. David found comfort in that. If God could allow a little bird so near, then he, David, need not fear, but take delight and shelter in the tabernacle.
Perhaps in these days of lockdown when for many of us the pace of life has become slower, we can take some moments to stop and listen and enjoy the sounds and sights of nature around us. God speaks to us through his creation. The Heavens declare his glory: every spectacular sunset points forward to a day when the skies will split and Jesus will descend in the clouds. But blades of grass, clusters of rhododendrons, sunlight slanting through the purple haze of bluebell woods, and the evening shadows of distant hills all declare his wonder. The ugly pupae of dragonflies hauling themselves out of the mud, waiting on a reed while the extraordinary transformation into the iridescent winged creature takes place, is a powerful picture of being born again. Skeins of Canada geese across an evening sky, the call of sheep and lambs in Springtime, the flutter of a peacock butterfly all have things to say to us.
To me, all these and more speak of the amazing ingenuity, creativity, imagination and enjoyment that God must have employed in creating the world. The sheer diversity is breathtaking. And as humans perceive increasingly the complexity of animals, birds, plants, insects, weather patterns, the more we realise that we will never come to the end of exploration and discovery.
The Apostle John had revelation about this. “You have created all things; and for your pleasure they were created.’ God took huge delight in making things and sustaining them and watching them. I think he takes even more delight in watching us watching them and enjoying them too! I often thank him for it; I hope you do too. But the stunning thing is that we also come into that category: he made us for his will and pleasure too! We have the capacity to bring joy to him.
Paul says that “all creation is waiting, standing on tip toe to see the glory of another world, the new Heaven and New Earth. This is just a shadow of what will come. “Eye has not seen , or ear heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what God is preparing for those who love him.”
It is going to be good! Its going to be fantastic!
And the birds will be out of this world!
The Wendy House 