I was studying Matthew 6:26 the other day. I actually studied it in English and then practiced explaining the chapter in the local language. God cares for the birds, and we are more important than the birds... surely He will care for us. This is a great and easy illustration for sharing with people in a culture based so strongly on fear of spirits and the unknown. The message is simple: God cares for us, if we trust him we needn't be afraid.
But then my thoughts get stickier.
This is a local bird. There are lots of them here. They may even be a type of sparrow... but I know they are small.
I left language school the other day and this little guy was flitting and fluttering around the parking lot... sure to get run over... He doesn't even have his tail feathers in yet...and is unable to fully fly... He has fallen out of the nest a little early. I tried to get him away from the road, and finally one of our language teachers (who has raised a lot birds) came up and picked him up. I snapped this picture to share with you.
There are a lot of illustrations I guess you could pull from this... 1) get prepared before entering the world... 2) loving hands are always provided... etc... but I think the thing that sticks with me is...
Wasn't God supposed to be watching over this little guy? Maybe he did by providing humans to pick him up and care for him... but really? I mean animals are eaten by animals everyday. Cats eat sparrows. A big hawk could eat a sparrow. Snakes eat sparrows.
And yet there is worship to be given to God because he cares for the sparrows. God cares for the sparrows that get eaten. The ones that fall out of the nest too soon and never learn to fly. The ones that get hurt... that die. This is hard to conceive.
If we think of ourselves as an amplification of sparrows... then not only can our praise and gratitude be larger because of our knowledge of sin... but also our suffering could also be proportionately amplified as we are more knowledgeable of the sufferings that attend our lives.
So it's hard to think of, but the seemingly offhanded way God allows some birds to survive and some to die or be eaten, none of this is without planning and care... and what started out as anger expressed because of God becomes a quiet understanding and worship in the pain of knowing that we have sufferings in life to bear.