Free as a bird

Matthew 6:26 says, "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?"

Do you ever birdwatch? I don't either. But I have seen a bird. Once or twice, actually.

Birds don't have a care in the world and I love that. They do nothing in the way you might expect. Ever see them walk? I mean, when they're not flying. They don't walk, they skitter and bounce up and down across the ground. There's a kind of peppiness to it. Ever see a hawk eat? They have no manners.

And what's a bird's job? How do they spend their day? They hang out on telephone poles and sing all day. They look for some food (but worms aren't hard to find). They feed their kids. They sing some more.

What's it feel like to fly? You know how when the airplane gets up to speed and begins its climb, you get that funny feeling in your tummy—your stomach drops under the pressure of that upward ascent? Do birds feel that all the time?

In Matthew 6, Jesus reminds us why the sentiment 'free as a bird' exists. They don't toil, they don't plant, they don't harvest, they don't worry about having anything stored away for the winter. Nope, they flitter and flutter, flip and flap and fly and bounce and sing.

The birds know that their Creator will take good care of them. Notice that the passage doesn't say their heavenly Father feeds them. It says your heavenly Father feeds them. See, birds have a Creator. You have a Father.

In Genesis 1 it says God created every bird, but in Genesis 2 it says God formed man. God spoke and every living creature came into existence. But to make man, Genesis 2:7 says he formed us from the dust. He spent time on us.

Jesus asked, "Are you not much more valuable than they?" It's a rhetorical question. They have a Creator, you have a Father. They were spoken, you were fashioned. You are of much much much greater value than the birds.