Just outside our kitchen window we have a bird feeding platform and
leading up to the platform is a picket fence. I cannot say that we have
attracted any exotic birds yet but we are still hoping. Waiting for
the breadcrumbs and seed at breakfast time are a dozen or so greedy
sparrows. When they have had their fill the blue and scrub wrens take
over. Then during the day we might have a visit from an injured
blackbird I rescued from a strawberry net a year earlier. Recent
arrivals have been a pair of goldfinches and two grey shrike thrushes
with their beautiful call.

The birds have become very tame, particularly the sparrows and the
wrens. There are no predators, and they have come to accept that we will
not harm them. Although they are greedy and squabble over the food,
they do have a sense of order. They sit on the pickets in a queue, and
as each bird takes its food and flies away all the birds move up one
picket towards the dish. Woe betide any bird that jumps the queue –
the others will quickly deal with the intruder.

It is good to have an orderliness about things – we know just where
we are and where we stand. And in this great picture of creation the
animals and birds, creatures that we may consider to have a low
intelligence, also have an order of things. The fact that the common
sparrow knows that it must take its turn otherwise chaos would result,
shows just how man and the creatures of the earth are linked through our
Creator. Even the words creature and Creator comes from the same Latin
word CREARE, meaning to produce.

The Bible has something to say about the common sparrow. We are
told that not one of them will fall without our Father in Heaven knowing
about it. The Scripture goes on to say that we are worth much more than
sparrows. As we age and think back over our lives and what lies ahead,
we are not to be apprehensive. God holds us in the palm of His hand.

Each morning as I watch the sparrows take their turn at breakfast I
can take heart from the assurance that God cares for me.

He cares for you too.

Have a good week. Pastor Ron

Optional Bible reading: Matthew 10, verses 29 to 33.

This is one of a series of weekly messages of encouragement
originating from the Derwent Valley, near Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
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