Phil, I really love that.

Birds are so very loving. I love them.

May I please share this article in tact, with a few bird lovers, please?

Thanks.

Lovings,
Pat Ferguson
At 03:03 PM 7/1/2006, you wrote:
>I don't think I have posted this on here before.
>
>Phil.
>
>
>Why God Made The Birds
>
>By Phil Scovell
>
>
>
>      This weekend, I wasn't feeling too well physically.  It was
>sort of like the stomach flue or something.  Anyhow, I normally
>seem to get discouraged pretty easily whenever I get sick.  Some
>of it is related to the dozen eye operations I had 41 years ago
>because I used to wake up sick as a dog and puking my guts up
>after every operation.  So, there's some healing there that needs
>to be done but fortunately, I've already received a great deal of
>healing in that area but there is more work to be done.
>
>      Anyhow, as the day wore on, I got to feeling better.  I had
>been thinking about what I was going to teach on this morning,
>Sunday, but somehow, and for some reason, I felt my spirit telling
>me to switch to another topic and that was about birds.  I
>remember at the moment I felt the change, I was walking near the
>bird cage where Chester, our African Gray Parrot lives, and I
>heard him chattering and playing around.  Parrots of all kinds
>love to play.  They, unlike people like me, have no problem
>keeping themselves occupied in one way or another.  So, as I said,
>I was walking by his cage and his chattering made me stop and
>think about him and other birds.
>
>      When I was a kid, I had a dog named Corky.  I've talked
>about him before in other articles and testimonies.  He was a rat
>terrier and I spent a lot of time with him.  I used to always say
>to him, "Corky, I wish I was a dog."  One day my mother heard me
>say that and she asked why I was saying it.  "Because," I replied,
>"dogs never have to go to school."  I have a feeling there was a
>lot more behind my secret confession but I'll save that for
>another time.
>
>      I was reminded of this when walking passed Chester and
>hearing him playing in his cage.  I sort of thought the same thing
>as when I was a child about being a dog but this time, instead of
>wishing to be a dog, I thought of being a bird in God's animal
>kingdom.  I heard myself saying in my thoughts, "Lord, why are
>birds so happy?"  I was thinking, why do birds sing, those that
>are song birds I mean, and why do they chatter and play around and
>seemed to always be having a good time.
>
>      Several years ago, I watched a two hour program on a local
>educational channel which was on birds.  They claimed that there
>were over 600 billion birds on the planet, sounds low to me, and
>2800 different species.
>
>      Most of us probably never pay a whole lot of attention to
>birds but I was thinking, this weekend, what it must be like for
>all the birds in the world to awaken each morning and start
>singing and chattering to the Lord.  Millions of birds, billions,
>singing and to whom are they singing?  Well, they are for our
>enjoyment, that's for sure, but what do you bet that God hears
>them, every one, more than we personally bother taking notice.
>
>      In the late seventies, we lived in western Colorado.  I was
>an assistant pastor in a small Baptist church at the time.  We
>lived in a brand new house and had one child that was a little
>less than two years old at the time.
>
>      One morning, about 5:30 or 6 o'clock, in April, I put on my
>coat, after making some coffee, and carried my cup out on the
>patio.  the meadowlark has been just about my most favorite song
>bird for many years.  We lived in a very large valley and at the
>edge of town.  In fact, over our back fence you were considered
>out of the town proper.
>
>      that chilly mountain morning, as I stood and prayed, I had to
>stop to admire the thousands of meadowlarks I could hear all
>across the valley.  One came within about 75 feet, or less, of the
>patio and perched on top of a nearby telephone pole.  He sang so
>loud with all the others, you almost had to cover your ears.  I
>tried singling each songbird out so I could count all those I
>heard that morning.  It was impossible.  I've never heard anything
>like it before or since.
>
>      As I poured out the small amount of coffee I had left in my
>cup on the ground and pushed back the patio door, I realized that
>those birds new more about praying and praising God than I did.
>
>      This weekend, when I asked the Lord why birds were so happy,
>He instantly said, "Because they know me."  Quickly on the heels
>of that knowledge, I realized that birds know him as their Creator
>and so they are happy.  Additionally, they know Him as their
>Provider.  You see, I know these things myself, theologically
>speaking, but the birds know it from experience.  More than
>anything in my life, I want to know God as that which He has
>created but to do that, you have to experience it.  How do you
>experience God's nature?  I personally believe it is accomplished
>through intimate prayer.
>
>      Have you ever seen a bird up on a telephone wire muttering to
>himself and saying, "What a lousy morning this is.  The whole day
>will probably be as lousy as yesterday.  That's the way life is
>for me," you hear him say, "nothing ever goes right for me.  I
>think," he says a little louder and with a little more
>forcefulness, "I'll just cash it all in right here and now.  I'm
>going to do a swan dive, a perfect header, right off this wire
>into the ground.  I'll snap my little beak, my neck will break,
>and I'll be dead.  I'm sick of life."
>
>      I hear little sparrows all the time around our house.  No,
>they aren't very pretty birds and they can't carry a tune in a
>basket.  All they do is chatter together.  I've noticed though,
>when I listen closely to their sounds, they seem to be happy.  I
>bet, I just bet you, that they are chattering about the Lord and
>His goodness and that's why they sound happy.  Of course, I could
>be wrong and they could be belly achers and complainers like we
>are but somehow I doubt it.
>
>      "Oh," you say, "birds don't have anything to worry about like
>me."  Oh, really.  What about their predators?  Cats, squirrels,
>high voltage power lines, hunters, kids with bee bee rifles just
>itching for a kill, and a whole host of others that would love to
>have them for supper?
>
>      I've never seen a bird sitting up on my house saying, "I hate
>life.  Life just isn't worth living.  It ain't rained in days.
>The worms have gone so deep, I couldn't pull one out of the ground
>with a pile driver.  My stomach hurts I haven't eaten for so long.
>Not only that, every single freaking bird feeder in the
>neighborhood has been picked bone dry by them crazy squirrels.  I
>wonder why God made them dumb things any way.  All they do is
>steal my food.  Oh, my belly hurts.  God must not even care about
>me.  I'm so weak, I can't fly another inch," and with that, his
>little legs give out, he rolls down the roof, off the edge, and is
>dead before he hits the ground; dead of a broken heart.
>
>      Why do you suppose we don't hear birds talking and acting
>like that?  I'll tell you why.
>
>Matthew 10:29-31
>29  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them
>shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
>30  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
>31  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many
>sparrows.
>
>      The word for "value" is a rather unusual word.  One meaning
>is that of a boat, a ship really, filled with precious grains,
>gold and silver, and many other such goods which will be sold in a
>land far away.  The returning sailors will be rich men because
>they will have sold everything in the ship to those who have no
>such provisions.  Plus, they will fill the same ship with new
>things from the far away land which they will sell when they get
>home and make even more money.  This describes the Greek meaning
>of the word for "value" that Jesus used to describe how much he
>values us.
>
>      Further more, He makes a comparison.  He reminded us that the
>Father is aware of ever single sparrow that falls to the ground.
>Sparrows, in those days, were worthless and were sold for a tenth
>of a penny or a tenth of a day's wages.  Oh, so you are thinking
>that isn't very much value?  Remove all the birds in one second
>of time from our planet and see what effect it has on our
>ecosystem.  In a week, this planet would be in big trouble if god
>removed all his precious little birds.  Jesus says, you are worth
>more to Him than the sparrows.  In fact, he says, He knows exactly
>the number of the hairs on your head.  Admittedly this is
>considerably fewer on some heads but regardless, God not only
>knows how many we have, He chooses to keep track of them.  Try and
>figure that one out.
>
>      So, why did God make the birds?  Because they know Him as
>Creator and Provider.  I wonder if you do.  I know I do
>theologically but I don't experientially.   I want to experience
>the truth that the birds know so I can sing and praise God with
>them every morning.  I, too, want to be as happy as they are
>because they know who they are and they know who their Creator is.
>
>Has He Ever Crossed Your Mind?
>www.SafePlaceFellowship.com