Bird food for thought

25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the [p]air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”- Matthew 6:25-27

I am blessed with having people who have been in my life for 30 years. I have been blessed with having people in my life who have only been with me for a short amount of time. No matter how long people have been in my life, they all have one thing in common…....

It won’t take them very long for them to figure out that I am a worry wart.  

I can point to many instances in my life and say “THIS is why I worry so much” and if I am honest, I use said examples as a means of justifying my habit of worrying. I am not saying that there aren’t things in your life that CAN cause you to worry, but as my sweet husband always tells me, “You can choose whether to worry” I almost cringed as I wrote that……because he is right.

I was making my way to school last week when I noticed a bird. Normally I don’t stop to observe a bird, but this little guy got my attention, he got my attention because he was eating. I took a photo (the one at the top of the page) and went on my way. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why this bird that was simply eating had been such an attention grabber for me. I tried to get it out of my mind, I had enough to worry about.

I need to get to class on time.

Did I remember to do my morning dose of IV medication?

Where do I want to go eat after class and do I have enough money?

If this stupid wound vac beeps during class one more time……..

 Seriously, what’s with the bird?   

After class, I went to my favorite restaurant for lunch before I had to head home to rest. After I had ordered, I did my normal routine of playing with my phone until my food gets here. I went back to my camera app on my phone to try and figure the bird picture. After about five minutes of looking at this photo it hit me as to why it caught my attention and why I felt led to take the photo.

Wait, how did the bird get it’s food?

It’s funny sometimes how one simple thought can snowball into a way for God to minister to and remind you of important stuff.

The point isn’t how the bird got the food. The point is that the bird knew how to get the food, and he knew that without fail that it would be provided to him…..or her, I couldn’t really tell.

Here are some interesting questions: Do birds know who God is?  Do any animals know who God is? Isn’t it amazing that God provides for animals of all kinds and they don’t have to worry about whether they are going to be able to eat?  Even more astonishing, we don’t know if animals understand God as provider. Why is this astonishing?

Well, as humans, we have a couple of choices to make that animals don’t get the luxury of deciding. We can choose whether we want to know and have a personal relationship with God our creator and provider. The second thing we can choose, as my husband so eloquently reminds me all too frequently, we can choose whether to worry. We can choose whether we are going to worry about how much our next paycheck is going to be, or where to find work, or how other situations in our lives turn out.  

Birds do not know God, and yet they are not worried about where or who they are ultimately going to get it from, they just know it’s coming

If you are in Christ, you obviously know God, and yet how much of our day is spent worrying? How much of our day is spent neglecting to remember who ultimately provides for us?

If you stare at a bird or a photo of a bird like I did a week or so ago, and think to yourself, as I did, “How is it that a BIRD worries less that I do?” Please allow me to encourage you to read this passage more extensively, and pray about allowing the Holy Spirit to take your worries to the Cross of Christ. Ask him to show you how to leave it at the Cross.

All this from a bird….who knew?

Don’t forget that He loves you and so do I,

Shelley Olsen