Dear Saints,
Last Lord’s Day evening, I preached a sermon entitled, “Listen to the Lord through the Singing of Birds.” It was based on observing an observation in Psalm 104:12 of the singing of birds among the branches to inspire our daily applying Matthew 6:26 and looking at these winged ones in our mind’s eye by listening to their chorus of cheeps and chirrups all around us–as did my making use of it during recent hospice chaplain visits to minister to others and bless myself while journeying through neighborhoods and along pathways in between.
The date of that sermon was October 4. I’d like to share that it seems like God would let the lesson linger a while longer. For family worship the very next day, I led from The One Year Book of Devotions for Preschoolers (Little Blessings Series).1 While we use other more meaty readings too, this brief one for youngsters is helpful at the dinner table managing the attention span of a number of our more wiggly nestlings (while still nourishing our maturing fledglings with “pastoral exposition”) at the end of a busy day just before bedtime.
Because these devotions are brief, I often double up dates beginning with the day before’s devotion which I haven’t always read for the family depending on the week. In this case, the previous day was dedicated to the singing of birds on the exact same date–October 4–as the sermon that night about the singing of birds! I never could have planned that! And I easily could have missed this overlapping emphasis. But God sometimes graciously guides the birds and His blessed ones to especially inspiring and tasty morsels for their daily bread.
I love it when this happens, just as we fairly regularly experience these “little providences” together when our Father feeds us during church worship–I think to remind us He’s paying attention and listening to us loving Him back. Like recently when Numbers 21:5-9 and John 3:14-16 with Jesus applying it for a Gospel message fell on the exact same day for our morning OT and evening NT readings (simply following the subsequent Scripture selections from Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary)! Among the “Little Blessings” devotional guidance for the fourth of October were these words:
“Birds like to sing! … You can sing songs to him just like the birds that chirp every morning!”
The One Year Book of Devotions for Preschoolers (Little Blessings Series).
It seemed appropriate to share this “coincidence” to further encourage you to stop and listen to the birds serenading you while surrounding you perched among the branches. I continue to do so, and as a result I often watch flocks fluttering across the sky from bush to tree with joy and wonder, which I’d otherwise pass by without noticing. Our little feathered friends are always there to remind us in their ceaseless singing that Jesus said we are to go about our days the same: busy trusting Him with today in thankful supplications, not fussing about tomorrow, and worshipping Jehovah Jireh as they do with their warbles, because He always will provide for them and us–including using our most feeble efforts to feed our little ones while trying to keep our own nests from unraveling as we faithfully build them upon the Rock by faith and grace and Christ and the Scriptures for the glory of God alone!
Beloved, let your listening to the singing of birds bring Philippians 4:19 to mind as the motivation and lyrical muse of your daily praise: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Semper Reformanda,
Pastor Grant
PS: Here are previous E-Devotions/Pastor’s Posts about being blessed beholding birds with some of my shutterbug captures of these encounters:
“Behold the Birds and Be Blessed!”
Footnotes:
- Crystal Bowman, The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers (Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), October 4. ↩︎