Teague Bible Church

Lazy Birds

I don’t play any video games. It is probably a good thing to play some video -type games, but I just am not interested at this time. I do wish I had all those quarters back that we used as a family in the arcades at the mall. I had mastered “Tron.” My kids had mastered all the karate ones. My wife thought she could take it or leave it till “Mrs. Packman” and the mechanical “Whack-A-Mole” came out. By the way, a curse on whoever thinks that the screen version of “Whack-A-Mole” is worth playing!

I did like playing “Angry Birds” when that was around, and in the real world you do occasionally come across a disagreeable bird. However, I have yet to come across a lazy bird. I know there are the kind who steal food and a nesting place from others, but even that takes some effort, at least.

When I say lazy bird, get a picture of a robin standing up next to a streetlight, mid-day while others are working, beer in one hand, and a pack of cigs rolled up into one of the sleeves of his t-shirt. For you old dogs; (no pun intended) James Dean; with feathers.

I was in my office looking out the window one day. Wondering and praying with intense worry,(which means I was only talking to the ceiling) about how we were going to get through the next few months. A robin was working , right outside my window. He begins pulling a worm out of the ground. He was so close I stopped moving so as to not scare him away. I marveled at how busy he was! He was not lazy, and certainly not angry!

Yes, He was not lazy, but boy was he helpless to make those worms be right there, at the right time! It turned my thoughts from the hard- working bird to the provisions for the bird. No matter how active he was he could not supply food for himself. It helped answer a question for me.

How much do I do, and how much does God do?

This passage came to mind and it brought such peace over my soul, and has brought continued peace over my being ever since.

” For this reason I say to you, 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 plant, nor do they harvest, 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?

And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

Do not worry then, saying, ‘ What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6: 25-33 JWP