Feeding the Birds and Pondering God’s Care

We have bird feeders; two hoppers, two tube feeders, one niger (nyjer) seed feeder, and one suet feeder. We also have a bird bath that we heat during the winter. During the recent snowstorm with low temperatures we were concerned about the birds, making sure the bird bath had water and that the feeders were kept supplied. In addition to song birds, the feeders also attracted crows, and where there is one crow there are many crows.

I realize that crows have to eat too, but when the crows arrive the little birds flee, and so while the crows get their share (or at least I’d like to think so), we often shoo them away with clapping, loud exclamations, or a bell. Sometimes I play the role of scarecrow, standing outside some twenty or thirty feet from the cluster of feeders – the song birds don’t mind my presence; the crows stay away when they see me.

Yesterday, while playing the role of scarecrow, I watched the cardinals at the feeders and as I watched I thought about my concern for them in the extreme weather. I realize that there are countless birds in the world and countless birds in Virginia and countless birds in Chesterfield County; but I wasn’t thinking about countless birds, I was thinking about the birds in our immediate area, about the birds who frequent our feeders. The birds and critters who live on and around our home matter to us, we see ourselves as stewards of their little lives and we see our small piece of land as a microcosm (albeit an imperfect one) of the words of Isaiah, “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.”

As I pondered my love for the birds at the feeders I thought of my Father’s love for me and of Jesus’ words that we are worth more than many sparrows and also of His reminder that our Father feeds the birds of the air. (In case you’re wondering why we feed the birds since God already does, my answer is that when Vickie and I feed the birds we participate with our Father in His care for creation. We also enjoy it!)

Then I thought that while I don’t know the names of the birds at the feeders and yet I love them, that my Father and Lord Jesus know my name and they love me deeply – so much so that Jesus died for me, bearing my unfathomable sin on the Cross, rising for me and coming again for me into my life…calling me to Himself. This is the great mystery of life for me, the great struggle, to accept the love of God for me, to acknowledge how much He loves me. I look forward to seeing Him face to face so that my acceptance of His love will be consummated, but until then I do struggle. I do not struggle with His love for others, and I find His love for others growing in me, but when it comes to His love for me, I just cannot begin to comprehend how it could be that He would lavish His grace and mercy on me.

Jesus challenges my faith with His words, “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they?...will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!” [Matthew 6:25 – 34].