Sometimes when I watch birds dart to and fro, I dream of having some of their qualities. There’s the obvious quickness I would have loved as an athlete, but there is another quality that I cannot easily grasp, one that I feel content to sit and admire. The little birds stop and start so decisively, so seemingly in control and confident to stop, to start, to wait, to listen, to cease. Maybe it’s the listening and ceasing that appeals?
The birds seem free to bounce from branch to branch, suddenly soaring across the yard at some un-foreseen whim. They may stop at a spot on the grass for food, atop telephone lines for a chat with friends, but best of all they entertain with a series of deft defying acrobatics with no fear or worry. Maybe this is what I covet — to live by Jesus’ promise that worrying will not add anything to my life. In the Gospel Jesus uses the sparrows as an example, and today he reminds me as I observe the little creatures, that by trusting in His kingdom, all the things I covet, and more, will be given.