Guest Post
by Herman Groenewald
See the Birds in the Air
I am sitting on our patio this morning watching some of the many birds in our garden. I occasionally feed them some bird seed, but they do not need me to feed them. They know when I have put out some food for them.
When I looked up the word birds in the Bible I was astounded that there were 93 references in the NIV Bible about birds.
I delight in watching the many kinds of birds and how many of them come two by two. How they find their own food in our garden without me having to give them some food.
How wonderful is our heavenly Father who provides for the living creatures who do not store up in barns.
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Scripture then asks the question: Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:36-37)
I wonder how many people are anxious today about their provision. Who do they blame for the lack of it? Who have they turned to?
Job had some friends who made a mockery of him when he lost his possessions. And see what happened to him when he replied to them.
“…I, who called to God and He answered me…” (Job:12-4)
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;” (Job 12-7)
Later we are told that we are wiser than the birds of the air.
10 “But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than he teaches the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?’” (Job 35:10-11)
We then read in Ephesians 1:3-14 of God’s blessing in Christ Jesus and how he has chosen us even before the world was made. How awesome is that?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
God adopted us, gives us wisdom, forgives us our trespasses, gives us a purpose, reveals to us the mystery of His will, seals us with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance in order that we may be the Praise of His glorious Grace and Glory.
While many people stress about the pandemic and their predicaments there are answers which God will provide, ones we do not fully understand, but we need to trust God who knows best as He has His own purpose.
And so I pray that we as His followers would help to point others to Christ as we consider the birds of the air and how our Father makes provision for us and prepares a place for us in Heaven. Like Job we can direct others to some of the answers we find in scripture, to help them find the way, and in our own way provide help to overcome some of the needs we see around us.
Nothing and no one is separated from the love of God, he is only a breath away.
Blessing,
Herman Groenewald