He Cares for You #2

"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Matthew 6:26

Jesus gives His listeners an example in this passage, using birds as his illustration. How many

birds exist in this world right now? A 2021 study, as I found on a Google search, estimates that

there are around 50 billion birds in this world. You know, that’s a lot of birds! The more of

something there are, the easier it seems to diminish the value. I think that’s partially why Jesus

uses birds as an example. They’re common, they’re (just) an animal, they do their thing and

people eat some of them. I like fried chicken myself. 50 billion birds currently in this world, and

that’s not counting the vast amount that have come and gone. Look at the birds of the air.

Would you look at them? Just look at them.

Now, as you’re looking at them, one or multiple of those 50 billion various birds, make some

considerations. They do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly

Father feeds them. You know what birds don’t do, at least that I’m aware of? They don’t live in

worry. They just live. They fly around, they peck for food, they build nests, they travel, they

chirp, they do their thing. Now I’m sure some scientist out there can identify, “Oh, they can

worry!” But really, they don’t live in their thoughts, because they are just acting out of instinct.

People worry. We think, and we think some more, and we think too much sometimes. Some of

us would love to be birds, not just so we could fly, but maybe so we could stop living in our

thoughts so much. Birds don’t sow, but we do. Birds don’t reap, but we do. Birds don’t gather

into barns, (or store in bank accounts), but we do. We do it so much that we obsess over the

sowing (working), the making money (the reaping), and the saving of it (gathering it into barns)

because we often simply do not trust God, so we work hard to have our own backs. Birds don’t

do that.

Again, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Worry doesn’t control God’s provision; do you

get that? The more you worry, it does not make God try harder to console that worry. He’s

calling you and me to trust Him for what we need as we go forward into the lives He’s called us

to, and all too often the provisions take the place in our hearts of the Provider. We soon end up

worshipping this stuff instead of the God who made this stuff, gives us this stuff as we need it,

and who controls our need of it, too. God feeds birds. Are you not worth much more than

they? Well, Jesus didn’t die on the cross for birds, He died on the cross for people. Of all His

creation, it would be hard to say that people weren’t far more important to Him than birds. He

sent quail into a camp of Israelites to feed the people. If birds mattered just as much, they

wouldn’t have been on the menu.

God sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins because He loves us. He cares about us. He

cares about our lives and our concerns. If you go outside today, perhaps you should look up and

see if you don’t spot a bird. Take Jesus’ cue that if God cares enough to provide for them, how

could He not care about you? He does. This passage, again is meant to deal with worry, and maybe another element of quelling the worry in our hearts is to remember that God deeply loves

us, because when we doubt His love and concern, we certainly invite anxiety into our hearts.

Be blessed.

Sam Stringer