Considering the Birds at Minus 23C

  

Needlepoint gift from parishioner Vicki Stephen, 1997 

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

Matthew 6:26-27

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
    and the breath of every human being.

Job 12: 7-10

We turn our heat down at night for a better sleep and some Winter mornings we shudder as we emerge from the covers. This was one of those starts on a day of brilliant sunshine and an outside temperature was still below minus 20C. As we sat nursing our morning Jo we watched the birds at our sundry feeders: finches, chickadees, a woodpecker, nuthatch, cardinal and blue jay. All of them were in down jackets, feathers puffing them up to double their normal size, but we wondered at their survival skills. 

We humans have the expression "bird brains" but the resourcefulness of birds is remarkable, if we give them our consideration. We destroy their habitat, create so much noise that they have to sing louder in mating season, pour plastics into rivers and oceans which poisons them, yet they persevere. Aren't we the brainless ones in this regard.

Jesus seemed to get it when he asks us to consider the birds of the air as he speaks about anxiety and worry. The birds in our yard and those we see during our paddles and rambles bring such solace during these turbulent times. A few days ago we were walking in the woods near our home when a Barred owl swept across in front of us and landed on a branch. A week ago today we were on Amherst Island where we saw a Snowy owl in flight, close at hand. These were holy encounters. 

I've always appreciated the notion that creatures can teach us, as we read in the often gloomy parable of Job. Perhaps Job was an inspiration for Jesus' words? 

I will keep our peeps fed through these frigid Winter days as a practical and spiritual practice. It's the least I can do.