WORRY

When I visit the beach there may be many or few people to be seen. But on every occasion there are birds running in and out of the waves, and skimming over the surface. Phillip Keller in Sea Edge claims that sea birds are an integral part of the seascape all year. It is almost impossible to walk along the beach without encountering birds. If there are shoals of fish running in the current, flocks of sea birds follow them in wild excitement. Plunging, diving, circling and splashing into the sea with wild abandon, the birds feed on the silver hordes with incredible frenzy. Afterwards they settle softly on the shore to rest and preen themselves. Flying overhead are the flights of pelicans in single file heading backwards and forwards along the coastline.  On the beach the birds view my coming toward them with suspicion. As I approach, they lift gently off into the breeze, circle softly around me to alight again on the sand behind my back. In front of me there are often energetic, erratic little flocks of sanderlings and sandpipers. With exciting energy and flying feet they feed tirelessly between the waves that wash across the shore. If startled or alarmed, they flash away from the surf, skim over the waves, banking and wheeling with breath-taking precision. To watch them fly in such marvelous, intricate patterns without confusion or collision is to be thrilled and stimulated with pure pleasure.

No two species of birds have precisely the same life pattern. Their movements on the sand, their search for sustenance from the sea, their flight formation, their form and rate of wingbeat, their cries in the ocean wind are all different and engaging. Each has found its own niche here in the complex pattern of ocean life. Each brings to the beach its own unique beauty and inspiration. They are as much an integral part of the shore as sand or sea or shell or stone.

The tiniest bird in the world is the Bee Hummingbird, which is found in Cuba. From the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail it is 2.25 inches long. The largest flying bird in the world is the Wandering Albatross whose wingspan is 14 feet. At home in the ocean, even the most ferocious storm conditions do not disturb it. It stays airborne by facing into the wind. By means of a special mechanism which locks its wings open, it can glide for weeks at a time and conserve energy by not needing to beat its wings. It even sleeps on the wing, and comes to land only to breed on some remote Antarctic island.

When I left seminary and was ordained I served my first ministry under John Stott, Rector of All Souls Church, London. He published a beautiful book entitled, The Birds Our Teachers, Biblical lessons from a lifelong bird-watcher. It includes more than 150 photographs he had taken all over the world on his expeditions. There are 9,000 different species in the world. He had seen 2,500 of them.  He tried to get me interested in bird-watching. He said that Jesus told us to “look at the birds of the air.” (Matthew 6:26) German Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), in commenting on this teaching of Jesus wrote:

“You see, he is making the birds our schoolmasters and teachers….We have as many teachers and preachers as there are little birds in the air. Their living example is an embarrassment to us… Whenever you listen to a nightingale, therefore, you are listening to an excellent preacher… It is as if he were saying ‘I prefer to be in the Lord’s kitchen. He has made heaven and earth, and he himself is the cook and the host. Every day he feeds and nourishes innumerable little birds out of his hand.’”

To see the birds feasting on the bounty of the ocean is to be reminded that we are not to worry about our life:

 “don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds…. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matthews 6:25-27,34 The Message)

The birds teach us that we should not worry about our bodies, or what may happen to us tomorrow. They accept by faith that their needs will be supplied. That doesn’t mean that they sit back and don’t take care of their bodies. They go hunting for food all the time and they clean themselves regularly. But they live in the present moment. Compare our preoccupations? As we grow older, how much of our time is spent talking about our health, and taking care of our bodies? How often do we think about what is happening tomorrow instead of enjoying the present moment that God has given us? Worry, often disguised as responsible concern, is incompatible with Christian faith. The birds teach us this. As a doggerel puts it:

Said the robin to the sparrow:

‘I should really like to know

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so.’

Said the sparrow to the robin:

‘Friend, I think that it must be

That they have no heavenly Father,

Such as cares for you and me.’

The birds teach us that God has provided for us so many blessings in life for which we can be thankful that we should not be worrying over what we haven’t got. English Caroline Divine Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) in his classic devotional book Holy Living writes about a person who has been robbed of his money counting what he has left:

“They have left me the sun and moon, fire and water, a loving wife, and many friends to pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still discourse; and they have not taken away my merry countenance, and my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience: they have left me the providence of God, and all the promises of the Gospel, and my religion, and my hopes of heaven, and my charity to them too; and still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate, I can walk in my neighbor’s pleasant fields, and see the varieties of natural beauties, and delight in all that God delights, that is, in virtue and wisdom, in the whole creation, and in God Himself.” (p.141)

One of our greatest blessings is that we have a God who is the Creator, who does not grow tired or weary, who gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. When we grow tired and weary, when we stumble and fall, we find our strength renewed when we hope in the Lord. We can be like the eagles, soaring over life’s troubles, we can run and not grow weary, we can walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

Jesus said that we must learn to live in the present. Like the egrets and the herons who wait patiently perched in the trees or by the side of the lakes, we are called to trust in the present provision of the Lord. Jeremy Taylor again,

“Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them; and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly: for this day is only ours, we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to the morrow. He therefore that enjoys the present, if it be good, enjoys as much as is possible.”

Like the birds along the beach the blessings of each day are designed and ordered by God to enrich your days and enliven your world. They are gifts from the sea. They come at no cost. They charge no fee. They are there, free, for the one who will pause to receive their uplift and inspiration. They may be many or few, as are the numbers of birds on the beach. Blessings do not always come in crowds. They may come in quiet moments in communion with our Lord and Savior. As with the lone and sometimes solitary sea birds on the beach, there are times when you must search and seek for the bonus blessings of God.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.(J. Oatman)