Feathery Friends

A musing of birds and barn swallows

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  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?” Matthew 6:25-26

Every time I return from a run across the countryside, I stretch out underneath a pavilion in the nearby sport’s park.  About a month ago I noticed a couple of barn swallows taking nest in the rafters above.  Like a young couple in love they chirped and chased each other, occasionally taking a break to chatter with me or at me (I hope the former but fear the latter). One or the other would then roost in the nest for a while as the other hunted in the soccer fields nearby for scrumptious gnats and other insects.  “Were there eggs?”  I wondered to myself.  I would have to wait and see and let time reveal their secret. 

Barn swallows always brought back pleasant memories for me.  We had several generations roost in the corner of the porch where I grew up.  Sometimes, though, they were unpleasant guests.  They made the bottom corner a bathroom, chattered warnings to us when we sat on the porch swing and dive bombed our cat Blackjack several times (they really didn’t like him!).  Yet as a child curious about life, I daily watched the daily transformation from when the hatchlings first stuck out their little heads with enormous beaks to when they sprouted feathers and learned to fly.   

They also aided me while I mowed grass.  Countless armies of hidden insects erupted from the freshly mowed grass as I made my passes and rows.  They swarmed around me and would surely have overpowered me and carried me off if it wasn’t for my feathery friends.  Like a fleet of jet fighters in a dogfight, the barn swallows mustered their forces and swept through the masses of disturbed bugs.  The swarms fled and I continued to mow.

So with childlike curiosity, I kept watch after my runs to see if any enormous beaks would stick out when mama bird flew nearby.  And sure enough, one day after a hot, sweaty run, the sight of a beak refreshed me. They have grown now and their parents will soon teach them how to fly.

Four feathery friends

But all along, if I will listen, they teach me another lesson.  On a mountainside long ago, Jesus addressed a crowd of people through his followers.  Most of these people were poor farmers or fishermen who paid taxes and tried to provide for all their family members.  They worried about food.  They worried about clothes.  They worried a lot.  And as Jesus spoke, he pointed to the birds and said, “Consider the birds of the air; they do not sow nor reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” 

Think about the birds for a moment.  When was the last time you or I saw Mr. Barn Swallow buy a tractor, then plow and disc the garden, plant it and water it?  When was the last time you saw him buy hammer, nails and timber to build a barn to store his food in it?  No. From eagles to hummingbirds, our feathery friends do not worry about where their food comes from. 

Jesus reminds us that ‘your heavenly Father feeds them.’  God takes note of the smallest of his creatures and cares even for them.  He whispers to the frogs where the best flies in the bog live, he uncovers plump raspberries and blackberries for the birds and delivers treasure maps to the squirrels and chipmunks where acorns and walnuts can be found.  God provides for the smallest of his creatures.  Not a bird falls from the sky without his knowledge of it.

Mama bird feeding her grown hatchlings

And if God so cares for the smallest of his creatures, how much more ‘valuable’ are you and I, the crowns of his creation.  We are valuable to him.  He made us in his own likeness and in his own image.  We are valuable to him.  He searches us and knows the deepest corners of our hearts, the hidden thoughts of our mind and the tender muscle fibers after a workout.  We are valuable to him.  Though we all go our own way instead of his way, he ‘so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16).  We are valuable to him.  Like the father in the prodigal son parable (found in Luke 15), he stands and waits for us to come home.  We are valuable to him.  Those who believe in his Son, Jesus, have the unique privilege to be called ‘children of God’ (1 John 3:1).  I emphasize this point because we either tend to forget God’s goodness in trouble or believe what others say about us.

This is the lesson that our feathery friends teach us often.  So the next time you are anxious or worried about your life—listen to the birds sing in the morning or watch them fly and dart about.  Then remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:26:  “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow nor reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable then they?”