This One’s for the Birds!

I have a thing about birds. I love them. I love sitting on my deck and watching them. I think it’s amazing. These little creatures, flying all over creation without a care in the world. If that sounds weird to you, I offer you some advice. Take five minutes out of your day and go birdwatch. While the world swirls around you, go be an observer to creation. If you still think it’s weird, well then, it’s not me, it’s you. (Sorry. Not sorry.)

I sat in my lawnchair today watching the birds in the backyard. It’s one of my favorite things to do whilst I take a break from the “doing” of life. I watched them busily flying from feeder to feeder, waiting for one of them to hop on our newest most beautiful feeder I received from BB&K as a birthday gift. I sat there for longer than I care to admit watching them… Like I said, I enjoy it (no judgements) As I sit, I can’t help but think on Matthew 6:26.

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

The more I watched, the more annoyed I found myself becoming (because isn’t that how life works sometimes). I had a glorious feeder with the best-of-the-best bird seed in it just waiting to be discovered, yet all the birds did was go after the cheap suet cakes. I’d see bird after bird land and then fly off, so easily bypassing the new feeder and seed awaiting them. I saw beautiful birds like cardinals and blue jays and red-winged blackbirds simply bypassing the new feeder. My annoyance dwindled when I realized the irony of the situation.

Being human is sometimes like being those beautiful birds.

We flit through life as creatures of habit, doing our thang, making our lives happen (and yes, that was thang, not thing… I feel cooler that way. I digress.) Sometimes, in our habits, we miss the true prize God puts in our lives because we are so wrapped up in the paths that we know so well. I began to question what would happen if I said sayonara to the everyday path (not completely, as that would give Hubbz a slight heart attack, but some of the paths and habits that keep me stagnant in life.)

In our hustle and bustle and “business” I think sometimes we miss the reason we are here… At least I know I do! We aren’t here for us. We’re here to be sacrificial followers of Jesus… Yes, I understand the meaning of what I just said and how that is in direct conflict with the stubborn ass-face I can a lot of times be. I also know that changing my habits and paths and living sacrificially can bring some of the most incredible joy to my life that I couldn’t even dream up… Kind of like unexpectedly finding the good grub in the new feeder.

I don’t know what living sacrificially looks like to you, because I don’t know what would be a sacrifice in your life. I know what it means for me… At first it means “this sucks”, then once I get the ego out of the way, it means finding the prize. It means finding the new orange and gold flecked bird feeder filled with the expensive bird seed. It means finding the prize that we in no way deserve and could never earn, but are given anyway.

Still sitting here. Still waiting for the birds to discover that new feeder, but I know when they do, it will change their path.