Scripture

When I watch and/or listen to birds, except for the sometimes loud social “chatter” that the sparrows in my yard periodically engage in, I’m reminded of the well known “lilies of the fields . . . .” quotation from the Bible.

My first public display of my wooden birds was at a national religious convention; my wife had prepared to display her scriptural based artwork at this convention. I had asked her if I might use some of the space to show my birds. I was told that my birds, like her artwork, must have a scriptural foundation.

The following quotation from Mathew I thought was just right for three reasons. First, it is very much like God’s attitude toward the lilies which I have always liked so much. Secondly, it’s very reassuring for those who tend to worry too much or have a low self-esteem. And finally, I see in the quotation a very special place in our world for the birds of the earth and our backyards and even my wooden birds-at-rest (or “treepeeple”).

“….do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:25-27

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.’

God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'”

—Genesis 1:20 and 1:22