Turning of Days: Lessons From Nature, Season, and SpiritSample

Day 4: Trust Like the Birds

Our cat sauntered into breakfast one morning, covered in feathers. It seemed he’d already had his. So I bought a blue collar with a small bell and put it on his neck. It seemed the least I could do. After all, we were the ones who’d set up feeders in the backyard, and I didn’t like to think of myself as the kind of hostess who’d invite her guests to slaughter. But the cat hides behind planters and among the bushes. He crouches low, predatory and patient. And a bell can only do so much. 

So I wonder: Why am I so bothered when I find the cat covered in death? 

This is normal, I tell myself. This is the state of things. Creation groans under the curse, awaiting redemption. Don’t I hunt and stalk and kill, too? But then I remember that I am also hunted, and maybe this is the real source of my anxiety. Perhaps I’m not concerned with what kills so much as what is killed. 

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus calls us to give attention to the birds two different times. First, in Matthew 6, He says:

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear . . . 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?

Then in Matthew 10, He says:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul . . . Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

In both cases, He’s reminding us of the same thing: Whether in life or in death, I will care for you.

Isaiah tells us of a coming peaceable kingdom, when the lion eats straw and lies down with the lamb, when the child plays on the serpent’s nest. When the cat does not need a bell. But this kingdom has not yet come. And so as we pray for it, we must also learn to live in its absence. We must learn what the birds teach us: Do not be afraid. Trust that the Father. He will provide all you need in this life and the next. Are you not worth more than many sparrows?