Look at the Birds
Spring 2024
When I was growing up, my family had a small, blue wooden bird feeder in our backyard. Occasionally, I’d leave out bird seed to tempt some new visitors to stop by and then I’d have my bird book ready so I could try to identify each species. To my disappointment, there were never any exotic or rare guests at our bird feeder—just lots of blackbirds, robins, and sparrows. As you might guess, my dedication to birdwatching didn’t last very long!
In 1 Kings 17 we read of Elijah watching for birds coming to visit twice every day as he was hiding by the brook Cherith to escape from angry King Ahab. I’m sure Elijah watched for these birds much more carefully than I watched for birds in my yard, because they didn’t come to get food from Elijah—they carried food TO him!
Elijah had just delivered news to Ahab that there would be no rain or dew in the land because Ahab was leading the nation in the worship of idols and was ignoring the commands of God. No rain or dew meant that the land would quickly experience drought, and with no water for the crops to grow, famine would follow.
Elijah didn’t have to worry about his food though. God worked a miracle just for him! Ravens normally will eat anything that they find—dead animals, fruits, insects, and even some other birds. But God commanded these ravens to carry bread and meat (without eating them!) to Elijah every morning and every evening so that he could stay alive to do what God asked of him. What a wonderful example of how God is in control of everything, even the ravens’ mouths! And what a wonderful picture of how God takes care of our needs, even our food!
In the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament, Jesus reminds us again of how God takes care of everything that we need. He encourages us to “take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on” (Matthew 6:25). To show us how much He cares, He tells us to look at the birds because they don’t plant a garden or gather any crops or store any food away for later, but every day God feeds them. If God feeds every single bird every single day without them doing any work for it, how much more will He take care of us?
Sometimes we worry about things because they seem too little to pray about. We imagine that God cares only about big events or big problems. But God cares about it all and He doesn’t want us to worry about anything in our lives. Rather, He tells us to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33).
Seeking God’s kingdom means our focus should be on learning more about our God, trusting Him, obeying Him, telling others about Him, and praying to Him. When we focus on those really important things, then we won’t be worried about the everyday things like food and water and clothes because God has promised that “no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).
Lois Carper