Glimpses of the Kingdom...
Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life…Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? - Matthew 6:25-26
The smallish black birds with yellow beaks and short tails apparently did not get the memo that instructs all birds, except owls, to settle down at dusk and remain quiet until the first light of dawn. These rascals make noise all night long, and along with their many friends: scrub jays, hummingbirds, sparrows, finches (I think), doves, crows, pigeons, mockingbirds, etc., and even a family of squirrels, call the trees and bushes around our neighborhood their home. I guess that makes us neighbors.
I marvel at the beauty and diversity of life on Aster Street, and how for the most part we all seem to get along. They eat bunches of insects and are fun to watch, especially as they entertain and harass our dog, Ruby! And, aside from the nocturnal chirpings, the occasional raiding of my garden and the fruit trees, or the use of our cars for target practice, these fine feathered creatures (and their furry friends) are great neighbors. But they are also a reminder, as Jesus points out. A reminder of how God takes care of life.
The airwaves, the internet, and newspapers are filled with stories and information that casts a dark cloud over so much of life. From soaring oil and gas prices to slumping housing markets, from rising food costs to declining consumer buying power, from wars abroad to floods and fires at home, from increasing unemployment to a slowing economy. The reality and pressures of facing every day life can seem overwhelming, personally and/or as we know of families, friends, and neighbors who are struggling in these times. Our neighborhood of life is going through a difficult time.
Allowing such pressures or realities, however, to gravitate into the center of our being, is for Christian disciples a misplacement of priority, and supplants God as the guiding force in our lives. Jesus makes it clear that God will take care of us, just as God takes care of the birds. Now more than ever, we cannot simply write Jesus off as naïve, because it is for times like these that we have the capacity to respond as no one else can, in faith with love and compassion. Caring for life in the neighborhood of faith is what God will do, and what we as disciples are supposed to model for others.
The neighborhood of faith is where God invites us and the birds to live abundantly as we keep God, the Kingdom, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, others, and faithfulness at the center of our living. I marvel at the beauty of life as it is lived in the presence of God.
We really do live in a wonderful neighborhood!
Peace,
William.