Birds of the Air

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading was written by Patricia Rabin and she titled it Birds of the Air. The summer sun was rising and my smiling neighbor, seeing me in my front yard, whispered for me to come look.

What? I whispered back, intrigued. She pointed to a wind chime on her front porch where a tiny teacup of straw rested atop a metal rung. A hummingbird's nest, she whispered. See the babies? The two beaks, tiny as pinpricks, were barely visible as they pointed upward. They're waiting for the mother. We stood there, marveling. I raised my cell phone to snap a picture.

Not too close, my neighbor said. Don't want to scare away the mother. And with that, we adopted from afar a family of hummingbirds. But not for long. In another week, mother bird and babies were gone as quietly as they had arrived.

But who would care for them? The Bible gives a glorious but familiar answer. It's so familiar that we may forget all that it promises. Do not worry about your life, said Jesus in Matthew chapter 6, verse 25. A simple but beautiful instruction. Look at the birds of the air, he added. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Just as God cares for tiny birds, He cares for us, nurturing us in mind, body, soul, and spirit.

It's a magnificent promise. May we look to Him daily, without worry, and soar. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 25-33. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 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?

Can any one of you, by worrying at a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow?

They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Let's pray.

Loving God, it's humbling to know that you care for the needs of our life. Please help us to honor your promise to provide by trusting you more each day. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Joyce Dinkins and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.