Day 13 - The Birds of the Air

During this time, many are going to cry out, “but who is going to take care of us? If our economy is damaged, how will we cope? Who will take care of my children if I can’t afford to pay the bills? Who will keep me safe? Who will take care of me when I’m sick if there aren’t enough doctors and nurses? What will I do if I run out of money? So many ‘what will I do’ questions, and many of them with no answers.

Now look at the birds of the air. They have no bank accounts. They have no property. They have no store cupboards. And yet they fear not, for they know they will be taken care of. They don’t hoard. They don’t fret. Instead, they take one day at a time and get up early and sing. Yes, they begin every day with a song of thanks. Maybe they are celebrating the fact that they got through the night. But perhaps they are excited about all that this new day will bring forth.

They take time with each other. They know the seasons. They have no manual to refer to with the dates of the breeding seasons. They simply just know. They know when they need to fly north and when it’s time to return south again. There are so tuned into a channel and frequency which we lost long ago. They can see and hear things which are out of our range. They are never overweight. They seem to have found a balance which enables them to eat just enough in order to stay healthy, but no more. They are the hardest working of parents to their fledglings. Night and day they go out finding the necessary nutrients so that their young can grow into strong, healthy chicks.

They have a freedom we have lost because the more we gather to ourselves, the more we are tied down by those things. All our time has been spent building and maintaining and improving our nest. Yet we have forgotten how to fly. The birds of the air do both. They recognise the seasons for building a new nest. They rarely return to an old one. They begin again and start from scratch. What hard work that must be, but maybe there is a lesson in that for us? All our material possessions have blinded us to this truth, that we were made to fly.

When you have learnt to fly you can discover heights which were never reachable before. You gain a new perspective. You can see further and wider. You can travel great distances. You meet new people and see things which inspire and excite you.

So, in these turbulent times, take time to look up and watch the birds. Let them inspire you and teach you and remember how faithful the one who created them is to them. Not a single one dies without him knowing about it. Do you not know that you are of more worth than that?

What are your most frequent “What will I do if…” questions?

Spend time today watching birds and learning from them. What have they taught you?

What ‘possessions’ or ‘things’ keep you tied to the nest, preventing you from trusting that you can fly? What can you do to dare to fly?