Got a billboard for the Blue Jay?

I love bird watching nowadays. Having favorite past times such as hiking, camping, and gardening, it actually surprises me that birds(until now)have not caught my attention. Now I love them!! Birds instantly make me happy. I enjoy watching them fly to the feeder, dance around and play with one another, scavenge for food. At any given time we may have up to 20 birds on our deck. (I have actually learned their names! thanks to my friend Tina and this great book "National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America.")Downy woodpeckers, titmice, cardinals, blue jays, carolina chicadees, juncos, american goldfinch, purple finch and red-bellied woodpeckers.

Birds and Blooms magazines were given to me by my friend Tina and I was so pleased with them I could not wait to look through them and read them. This photo was taken from their web site. The latest issue features David Shaw from Fairbanks, Alaska answering the question "why feed birds?" and his answer matches mine with a special twist I will tell you about after I quote him. "Conservationist are constantly trying to put the importance of wildlife, wilderness and nature into economic terms. As though the dollar value of a flock of shorebirds or the birds at my feeder is all that matters. This, I now realize, is utter nonsense. What makes birds valuable, what makes them worthy of our protection, is their inherent beauty. It is their beauty that enriches our lives, not their economic value. And this enrichment is priceless. In this age, the noise of televisions, computers, radios, the Internet and automobiles constantly surround us. Buried in this cacophony of multimedia, we are far removed from the natural world. Yet, part of me yearns for that connection."

Yes, this is the very reason that I have fallen in love with birds. Their beauty and play reminds me that life is beautiful. Beyond that, God created each of them and knows not just their generic name, but all of their individual names. For instance, we first started noticing that we had a blue jay and we loved to watch him. We thought that he was the only blue jay in our backyard until we had two, then three, and soon four on the railing and bird feeder. I was thinking about giving him a name when I thought "he" was the only one...maybe "BOB" the blue jay, or "Bartholomew" the blue jay. Notice the picture, if you cannot watch blue jays in person, that blue jays have a stripe around their necks and it seems to me that it would be a perfect little natural place to hang a name badge or billboard like they say around their necks so that we would know each of them by name. Now that we can count up to four, we figure that we really have a whole mess....but we will never know each of them by name. We will never know their individual names or the small differences between each one of them.

However, God does know them!!! And knowing that makes me so enormously pleased because I know and trust the words of Jesus as never before. I know that God cares for me, knows me, and is always wanting what is good for me. "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow or reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they...Therefore do not worry, saying 'what will we eat?' or 'what will we drink?' or 'what will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father know that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
(Matthew 6:26, 31-33)

Bird watching is a wonderful antidote to worry. Peaceful enjoyment!