I remember posting how “excited” i was to wake up and find about forty “Bessie” cows in our yard. And i mean all over our yard. Now, we weren’t sure when the cows got out. They could have been out all night, or just an hour. Regardless of how long they had been out, they indeed made a giant mess of the yard. We’re talking major hoofmarks, and loads of manure. Even now, some dung heaps still linger. And what was my thought after they were all accounted for and safely returned to their pasture? “What a mess. This will cost a lot of money to repair.” Not once that day, did the thought of “my” pretty birds and wildlife friends i love to feed and watch, come back to my mind. Just the mess and expense of those Bessies. Well, God didn’t think about the mess, or the expense. In fact, i’ll bet he knew those Bessies were going to decamp from their little pen and wander around the yard, after a fresh rain. He knew that that their hoofprints were going to aerate grass that was just starting to green again, and He knew that those hoofprints would be useful. Hmmmnnnn… if i thought about it then, i would have questioned my own sanity. But today, i saw God’s plan unfold.
From Bessies To Bounty
Matthew 6 is a beautiful chapter to meditate on in today’s times. We are surely in a shaky economy, some of us are struggling with more than just a car payment, but we are far from destitute. Our pastor reminded us two or three weeks ago, that we are blessed. I’ve come to remember his words many times since then. When i think i am struggling, or wonder how i will get through another week, i remember that i am blessed.
After all, we have clothes on our backs, food in our cupboards and water coming from the tap. There are people in this world who are wondering if they will get up early enough to make it to the line, and get a bowl of rice. To feed their family. For the whole day. There are children who will go to bed hungry and possibly thirsty, on a mud floor of a dilapitated hut tonight, as i wonder if i should save the two leftover slices of pizza i cooked in the nice, cozy kitchen of my beautifully crafted, sturdy and well-insulated home. And when i wake up tomorrow morning and have my cup of coffee from my electric drip machine, those same children and their parents will get up and wear the same clothes they wore yesterday, and strive to get in that same line for that prized bowl of rice. It is sickening to even think about. Yes, we have bills. Yes, some of us have lost our jobs. Yes, some of us are having major trouble making the ends meet. Yes, some of us have had to give back our cars, or houses, or get in line for food stamps. Some have had to get rid of their healthcare so they can afford to eat or keep their electric on another week. Yes, we are struggling. But after living year after year in a country where we have access to so much, what would we do if we were in that rice line?
i say all that to tell you that i saw this verse in real life this morning: Matthew 6:25 – 34,
“For this reason I say to you, Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lillies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying What will we eat? or What will we drink? or What will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things; for your Heavely Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
And then i must tell you this…
As i listened to my electric drip coffee maker perculating, while washing up a few straggler dishes this morning, i looked out my kitchen window to see about twenty robbins. About two days before the Bessies tromped merrily through our yard, i had moved my bird feeders to the front, where the babies could see out the windows at the pretty birds perched for their daily seed. So i had no expectation of seeing any birds out there, and yet, here were these robbins, joyfully pecking at the ground, pulling up worms. From where? From the hoofmarks that “destroyed” our beautiful lawn.
Oh God knew.
He knew thirty two days ago that those little robbins would be here, would fly over our lawn and spy a little worm coming up to see daylight. He knew that those Bessies left the perfect place for a robbin to perch and peck. He provided that. Long before those robbins even knew they’d be hungry today.
And so, if i am more than a bird, then i know God will provide. i am assured that he will take care of me. Whether it’s from a feeder that someone else has prepared for me, or whether i have to go out and poke around a hoofmark, He has made a way for me.
© amysara and TheRFarm.
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