[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Monday, August 5, 2013

[Paul]

Well, it's the first Monday of the month as this is being written, that is, August 5.  I hope that your day is going well or went well.  On the other hand, you in Australia and New Zealand are in your morning times on Tuesday, and I pray that your day will go well.

Bonnie Brockway is a writer from Arizona, and today her thoughts enter our thoughts with her insightful article entitled "Take It To the Cross," rendered as follows:

Look at the birds of the air... and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? Matt. 6:26

Recently, I've learned a giant lesson in humility.  It involves a little hummingbird who built a tiny nest on a very small cross wind chime hanging on my patio.

There are bigger wind chimes hanging there, but for some reason she chose the cross.  Fascinating to watch, she would bring little bits of things, poke them in place with her beak, and then tamp them down with her feet.  When the nest was built, about three feet from my French doors leading to the patio, she would sit in the nest.  I talked to her all the time and she became so tame, she didn't flinch or move when I opened or closed the patio doors.

She sat there many days and nights, barely moving.  Two days ago, two tiny little beaks peeked out of the nest.  The mama now sits on the edge of the nest and tends to her babies.  Too little to chirp or fly yet, their little raw pink necks stretch out for her.

Witnessing this, I felt God in the process and I was humbled.  Why do I worry so about external things? Why do I fuss and fume and search for answers? God is in everything (Prov. 3:5-6)! This little bird selected a tiny cross on which to build her nest.  She trusted me, a great big human seated not far from her, to not destroy her nest or cause her harm as she laid her precious little eggs.  The lesson here is ... take it to the cross! There is no reason to fear life is our foundation is the cross.  God is big and we are small, but God will protect our "nests," our beings, our life if we have even the trust of this tiny little hummingbird, the faith of a mustard seed (Matt. 17:20).

I have wept watching this little bird trust me enough to build a nest before my very eyes, so close to me, to sit there day after day, unafraid and patient, and then to feed those miniscule little upturned beaks.

I know that if God cares for birds such as these, He cares for me so much more (Phil. 4:19).

In the quiet of my patio, talking gently to this little bird, I am overcome with the love that God has for me, for you, for this little new family of birds, through the cross that Jesus died to save us.  I feel privileged to have witnessed this miracle.

And there you have Bonnie's article for today.  I hope that her words and thoughts ministered to you today as they did to me when I first read them.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul