The Pastor’s Blog – LOOK AT THE BIRDS
Monday is my day off, so my wife and I usually go for a hike somewhere. This week we were south of the city, walking in a beautifully wooded area that boasted a lake and a pond. I snapped a picture of trumpeter swans relaxing in the pond, quite happy and content with their lives. In fact, they looked so peaceful that I simply had to stop and take in in for a few minutes before finishing my walk.
As I watched the swans I thought about the headlines for that day:
– Escalating tensions between Russia and the Ukraine.
– 700 acre fire in California only 30% contained.
– Truckers lead a convoy of protestors to Ottawa to take a stand against mandated vaccines and related job losses.
– Over 1000 people died of COVID in Ontario in January, the highest rate since the pandemic began.
– Hospitals are struggling with huge staffing shortages.
– A family of four from India freeze to death in Southern Manitoba trying to cross the US/Canada border on foot.
– Firefighter dies in apartment building fire.
On and on the headlines scream of suffering, pain, discord, corruption, war, destruction and grief. But these birds are totally unaffected by the headlines. Rather, they are quite at peace in the pond, simply doing what God created them to do. God gave them life and cares for them – that is what scripture tells us:
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? (Matthew 6:26)
I am grateful for those swans and the message they gave to me on Monday. We can trust God to take care of us. We can rest in Him. Now, will I remember that message when Tuesday rolls around?
– Pastor Gary