A to Z Challenge: “W”inter ornaments

We’re well into spring and it’s wonderful to open up my window while I’m getting ready for work in the morning. I feel the cool air, smell the budding plants and hear the beautiful songs and communication between the birds. It’s just about the best music around.

I ran across these photos of how beautiful birds are, even in winter, when everything else is asleep and regenerating. Even though it must be freezing out and quality food and water are scarce, the birds still appear on the stark, bare branches of the trees and brighten my day.

It makes me even more grateful for birds. No only are they beautiful singers and friendly visitors to our birdfeeders, but they add delight to any season.

It rained recently and filled up our birdbath. You would think the birds had died and gone to heaven! They were jumping in the bowl and flying out and around, happy as can be. What I wouldn’t do some days to be as carefree and happy, and grateful to my Creator, the way these birds are.

My friend and I were talking about the personal nature of God. Some see God as the Watchmaker and that after He created everything, He doesn’t really get involved.

We both believe that God is more personal than that. We’ve seen Him move in our lives in very specific ways, that make us acutely aware of His love and care for us. When I’m in a boo-hoo kind of mood, sometimes I actually ask God to help me be more aware of His blessings in my life, so I can be grateful of His presence. The blessings are always there – I’m just sometimes too focused on myself to see them.

Birds are an excellent reminder for me to be grateful for the gift of each new day, and to look for God’s hand in the many blessings he gives me, if only I am able to recognize them when they appear.

Matthew 6:25-27 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life.” (New International Version).