Consider The Birds

6/27/2010 -     Consider 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?”
Matthew 6:26 NIV


Early in the morning you may wake up to hear birds singing.  I often wonder what they are actually saying in “bird-speak”.  It sounds so chipper to me.  As if they don’t have a care in the world.  They fly around and observe things.  Somehow they also eat.  They find food when necessary.  There are no job descriptions or annual goals for them to hit.  They simply exist as birds and do what birds do. 

Jesus tells us to look at them as an example of why it makes no sense for us to worry.  God takes care of the birds.  God is the one who provides their food.  They don’t have employment contracts or at will positions.  Their benefits package comes from God alone.  And he provides continually for them.  Jesus says that they don’t sow or reap or even store away things in barns.  Basically, they have nothing to offer God. (No offense birds).  And the truth of the matter is, neither do we. 

Everything we have that is of any value to this world first came from God anyway.  These gifts and talents we use to earn a living are really just our taking what God has given and using it to earn money.  But what if we could stop focusing on that long enough to allow ourselves to just be us.  Just be yourself and allow God to truly provide for you.  We spend an inordinate amount of time at our jobs in order to provide “good lives” for ourselves and our families.  So many people are overworked.  We spend little time with our families and even less with our God. Please don’t think that I am telling you to stop working.  I’m actually telling to to start working on purpose instead of working for money.

When we can become instead of doing, we allow God another level of reign over us.  We don’t really have anything to offer Him except that which He has given.  Wouldn’t He feed us if we could give what He has given us back to Him?  Aren’t we more valuable than birds to Him?  Don’t we carry His breath in us?  This is our challenge.  To stop worrying about our material needs so much that we cannot become what we were created to be.  God will take care of you.  Give back to Him what He has given you and let everything else take care of itself.