Robin Ballet

As I walked today springtime robins were dancing everywhere! They were flitting on branches of budding trees and hopping in yards of emerging green. It was like a ballet. I have always been fascinated with birds. I have very early memories of being given a salt shaker as a little girl and told to go out in the backyard and try to put salt on a crow’s tail feathers. If I accomplished this great task, the crow would let me pick it up. It never happened but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. As a mother of grown children and a grandmother, I fully realize what this exercise was all about! No guilt here though… I might use it this summer when my three-year-old grand-girl comes to visit. 

Raising our children in the Ozarks gave us ample opportunity to see God’s handiwork. One year for Mother’s day, Garrett made me a large bird feeder. It was large enough for multiple birds to be on at one time. At any given moment, it was like God would paint a picture for us using colors that were only on His paint pallet, as purple, turquoise and yellow finches would land. Then Missouri blue birds sporting their blue coats and coral vests and woodpeckers with their bright red top hats would come for the fare we were serving.

Birds show up in my writing and in my home. Almost every room has a touch of them somewhere; a nest with blue eggs, a picture, and two little red birds huddled together on a dresser. My nieces have asked, “What’s all this bird stuff in your house, aunt Kim?” I’ve been called “Birdie” and likened to an old woman. That’s okay because I know….I know the picture….I know what He has told me. You see I have seen a momma hen puff herself so big you thought she would explode as she gathered her chicks under her wings for their protection and rest. So when I read words like, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge”, I see that momma hen gather her chicks so tightly you would never know they are there and I realize my Father gathers me, hides me and protects me. And, as Ruth, I am constantly learning it is only under His wings that I can seek refuge and find rest.

As God invited Jim and me into this season of seeking, I had so many questions and no answers. I had fears and insecurities. How would we live? How would we pay the bills? What if we made a mistake? What would people think? Almost immediately after surrendering to what we believed He was asking us to do, a verse came to my mind, He was speaking to my heart, for that is His work regarding His children. Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” You know when God wants to make a point, to teach, it seems like you see or hear the same thing over and over? This verse has shown up miraculously over and over in the past ten months. It has been in devotions, in sermons and written on mirrors in antique stores! Why? So that the words are no longer words written in red on a page but words that are tattooed permanently on my heart. The questions? They still come, but today as I watched my “robin ballet” I was reminded again, He has it all under control. But most of all I was reminded again, He has me covered!

Eyes to the skies….

Love,
Birdie (aka Kim)
Psalm 91, Ruth 2:13, Deuteronomy 32:11, Matthew 23:27, Matthew 6:26

The Robin and the Sparrow

Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”
~~Unknown Author