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Birdwatching

 Whose world is this, anyway?

My husband came out to the deck where I was reading, thinking, and taking long pauses to listen to birds and watch them visit the feeders. Nala and Butter were keeping the the squirrels away. The cardinals, like kings, were making sure they were fed first but wrens, sparrows, finches, robins, swifts sat in the trees calling and cackling. My Cornell Labs app has identified 18 in 18 minutes, some new ones included.

“How interesting that God made all the birds have distinctive calls,” I said. “But I guess they are calling to their own kind, their mate and children.”

“Do you think they are talking to each other?” he said.

“Not like we do, no communicating, but signaling.”

“I thought they were singing for us.”

We laughed about that; our human-centric, self-centered view of things takes over. “They sing and make noises when we are not here, so it’s not for us. If they are singing for anyone, it’s God.”

I had read Samuel’s speech to the nation in I Samuel 12, a passage I consider great oratory. “Samuel said that God would not forsake them for His great name’s sake.” Israel’s, and our, stable existence in the covenant had little to nothing to do about them. “He chose you because it pleased Him.”

And the birds “sing,” not even knowing they do—we call it singing to compare to human acts—for God.

I put out seed for the birds, and sometimes have the gall to think, I’m making sure they will survive. Ha! How foolish. I put the seed out so they will come to my yard and I can look at them and be entertained—and muse on the universe. They will find food elsewhere, just as easily or not, but they won’t starve. Jesus reminded us of this to ensure that we know God will care for us, but I think to remind us also that the animal and vegetable kingdom is not dependent on us. We depend on it and have the skills, knowledge, and experience to make it work for us.

It’s not our world. We will not destroy it; God will redeem it after this period of groaning. What we do to it out of greed may very well be part of that groaning.

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