This summer there has been a wonderful menagerie of birds flying in and out of our yard. I have seen gray jays, tiny hummingbirds, red-breasted robins, cat birds, scarlet cardinals, sparrows, gold finches, purple house finches, an owl and majestic hawks "making lazy circles in the sky." My favorite bird is the flicker, a beautifully graphic woodpecker with an impressive beak and red head. I have watched those birds for hours. They bring me such pleasure. As I observe their activities it occurs to me that each bird skillfully goes about its business. I've seen nest building. I've heard each bird's unique chirp. I've watched foraging and preening. I've even seen what appears to be a game of tag as one bird flies after another bird.
I can tell you what I have not observed and that is a bird worrying and despairing. I have not seen any bird pretending be something other than he was created to be. I have not observed discontentment among the backyard birds.
Watching the birds has caused me to wonder, what would it be like to be only who I was created to be? How would it feel to get up each morning and get about the business of my day in the most delightful, uncomplicated way-- no jealousy, no insecurity, no fretting and worrying? What would it be like to completely trust that God has everything available to me that I need to carry out my most abundant, fulfilled life?
In the Gospels it says:
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 add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:25-27
Oh may I be who I was designed to be. May I receive the simple blessings that God has in store for me, shedding all worry and insecurity. And may I add joy to the world around me.
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