As a child, I would often visit my eldest sister who lives in upstate New York. One of my greatest memories of those times is our trips to Cornell University's Ornithology lab. We would borrow recordings of bird calls and songs, and I would spend hours listening to those records. Through the process, I learned to love birds. That was almost forty years ago.
This weekend, here in the Bronx, God confounded me with the most beautiful bird I had ever seen-- and I have never before seen a bird like this one. She was stunningly beautiful. She was so small, even smaller than a chickadee. She hopped around, jumping from stem to stem on dead and damaged foliage from Hurricane Sandy, even landing on a stem very close to where I stood. So I got a close-up view, less than a foot away. It was a profound and mystical experience. If there ever was a "bird" version of a cherub, she was it.
She didn't sing during the few minutes I saw her, but God sang through her very existence. He sang of Matthew 6:26, reminding me that God values and deeply cares for His children. He sang of Psalm 8:6-8, reminding me that every creature on this earth must submit to the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. He sang of Matthew 10:29, reminding me that God in His omniscience knows when captured sparrows are sold off for pennies... and when they fall to the ground. He sang of Matthew 13:32, reminding me that the birds nest in the branches of the grand mustard tree-- a type of the true Christian's secure citizenship in the kingdom of God.
Ah, yes, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest where she can lay her young... even Thine altars, O Lord. (Psalm 84:3)
The Lord rejoices over His own with singing, silencing our fears by His love (see Zechariah 3:17).
Are you secure in His kingdom today?
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