Look at the Birds

“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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matthew 6:26, 27

Swinging precariously in the snowy wind, the little bird clung tenaciously to the suet feeder—his source of sustenance in the bitter cold. He had no fear of the swinging height of the feeder, or of the wind. He had no concern about finding food even though everything was buried under a blanket of snow.

I watched him for hours. Every time I looked out the window I would see him going from feeder to feeder trying both suet and seed. Only the scrub-jays scared him away. Yet even then, he only relinquished his place for a time, retreating to the snowy patio and going back to the feeders when the bigger birds disappeared.

I thought about the things which concern me. Even though I know God is sovereign, completely in control of even the things I consider to be problems or hindrances, I don’t rest in Him the way that little bird does. I worry and get upset, I talk to people about problems and possible solutions more than I pray about them. I don’t rest in Him the way I should. I know He will never leave me or forsake me, but I don’t act like it.

I counsel people to put their trust in God, but I fail as often as many of them do. One of the things I most desire to do in the new year is to trust Him more fully with the circumstances He allows into my life and the lives of those I love. Sometimes I forget how valuable I am to the Lord. I forget that He loved me so much He gave His only Son that I might have life.

The little bird, still happily feeding away outside my window as the feeder sways back and forth, is not swaying in his trust. He goes with the wind, unafraid that it might dash him onto the rocks below, not questioning whether the source of his sustenance will be there tomorrow. He knows no fear.

What things worry you and disturb your rest?

Think about your biggest problem. Then choose today to lay it at the feet of Jesus and leave it there, knowing that worrying will add not a single hour to your life, but it can subtract a few. Like the birds of the air, trust God to provide all you need moment by moment.