IT HAS BEEN FAR MORE THAN ONCE on my property I have believed the birds have church… Yes on Sundays they gather together in my juniper tree and sing, sing, sing!

WE, HERE IN MINNESOTA, have interesting seasons. At this time in May and June we’ve had some cold days, warms days, hot days…  We’ve had many dry days, some very rainy days. The sun is shining longer and staying up later…

Selah.

One of the Minnesota things I’ve been noticing more intensely are the birds. They seem to be singing more! (After all Jesus IS coming!) I have always and ever will love birds! I remember one of my very darling stories of when I was no more than four years old…  It was at my first home in Saint Paul. I took a used strawberry carton, a popsicle stick, and a string

Interested?

This IS very cute: the naivety of a child.

Selah.

It was a warm and sunny Minnesota day. I took my three necessary and precious possessions and headed outside. My aim: to catch a bird! It was so exciting to me! All I wanted to do was to look very, very much closer at a bird; to see his little face, beak, eyes, feathers, body, and feet in fascination at this little wonder…

Can you just see a little girl doing this?!

I propped up my strawberry carton, took the string, and moved away ‘long enough’ for the bird to not notice me. I didn’t capture one. I knew even then I didn’t give it much time; I do believe in my tiny little mind I knew he wouldn’t go inside my tiny propped-up strawberry box and that I would never be able to see him in this manner. But I wanted so to try…

Selah.

Not waiting long, (probably five minutes) I gave up. I didn’t ask for help, didn’t ask for suggestions. And yet, this effort was so desired that I’ve never forgotten this simplistic attempt at exploring with more intensely the beauty and wonder of a single bird.

Selah.

All these years this has been a fun one to tell my family and other loved ones. My family has been ingrained with a love for creation. I’ve always been much more excited about birds and animals than plants. God has imprinted desires and passions on all of us in different ways.

To this day, sixty-five years later, I still tell the birds I love them, I love to look at them and to hear them sing. I talk to them. If I hear them in our tree as I go out to give them fresh water, I let them know I’m there so they don’t fly out in a mass and hurt me or get hurt themselves.

I’ve seen them bathe in my birdbath, take a refreshing drink, peck at bread and seed, fly from possible danger. I’m also intently amazed that God has given these beautiful and varied species the ability to withstand what we can’t without special props, Minnesota winters!

Birds sing in the dark! Isn’t there a great revelation for us there?

Selah.

There singing seems to be absolute praise to the One and True God who created them:

 

Psalm 104:12
The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.

 

Shouldn’t we?!

Paul and Silas sang in the dark while being persecuted:

 

Acts 16:19-26
When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.  They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar  by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

 

Psalm 150
Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,  praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.

 

Be like the birds of the air! Be like Paul and Silas in prison for doing the right thing!

Praise the Lord in the dark!!!

Selah!