Love those Birds!

I am a birdwatcher!

But first let's get a few things straight...

Do I recognize all the birds in our area?

No, not all of them... but I work at it.

Can I tell which bird it is by listening to its song?

No again...  I'm not very good at it,

but neither of these keep me from enjoying their beauty or their song.

Would it surprise you to know that

God uses the birds to teach me about Himself?

This Baltimore Oriole is my latest bird lesson.
In the past I had bought oriole feeders,
and tried to entice them to come visit me but to no avail.
Then this week, SURPRISE!
One just showed up at my bird feeder,
 which by the way, only contained left over cornbread
and some fatty trimmings off a roast!

I had read that orioles liked oranges,
so decided to put some out..

 The results were amazing!

It was rather cold outside,

so I dawned my orange jacket

and stuck some orange slices in the crevices 

of a large old tree stump on our side yard.

 He boldly came out of the trees
and began enjoying the oranges!
I wondered if the ORANGE jacket had anything
to do with getting his attention!

               I watched him on and off all day,

and felt like his appearance was a special gift to me 

                   from my Heavenly Father.

This inspired a little Bible study on my part, 

and some of what I learned amazed me!

Did you know that after God created the birds,

He talked to them and blessed them?!!

"God blessed them and said, 

'Be fruitful and increase in number'..."

Genesis 1:21-23

Then God made a promise to give every green plant for food to

 "all the beasts of the earth

AND ALL THE BIRDS OF THE AIR

...Everything that has the breath of life in it"

Genesis 1:30

After the flood, God included the birds

when He promised not to flood the whole earth again.

Genesis 9:9-11

God says He provides food for the ravens

when its young cry out to Him.

Job 38:41

Interestingly, it was ravens that God used

to bring food to Elijah.

You can read about this in  1 Kings 17.

And the book of Luke says,

"Consider the ravens;

They do not sow or reap,

they have no storeroom or barn:

yet God feeds them.

And how much more valuable you are than birds!

Luke 12:24

Earlier in that same chapter,

Luke says that not one sparrow is forgotten by God.

He continues, "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Luke 12:6-7

Matthew spends some time driving this point home

in his gospel.  He quotes Jesus saying that if our

Heavenly Father feeds the birds,

we should not worry,

because He certainly knows how to care for us!

Matthew 6:25-34 The Message 

I don't know about you,

but I had a few challenges this week,

and I needed this reminder that

if God loves the birds so much and cares for them,

He will surely take care of me.

And He used a beautiful Baltimore Oriole

to get His point across!

And then he even came back,
and brought his wife with him!

You might also like to check out
a previous post entitled
 "The Power of Orange"!
Or hop on over to
Rock4Today
to check out My Names for God on Rocks!