On the fifth day of creation, God created all the creatures of the sea and birds and instructed them to “be fruitful and multiply.” On Sunday, we explored the idea of Living Water in connection with God filling the seas with creatures and Jesus offering the Samaritan woman a drink of living water. Sadly, this left little room to reflect on what the birds of the air have to teach us. So since they got shortchanged on Sunday, I decided to give this space to the birds this week.
A few days ago, Fred and I were walking along the river when the song “Three Little Birds” popped in my head, and I immediately realized I had overlooked a pretty important reference to birds in the gospel of John. I’m almost embarrassed to admit it and somewhat suspect the Spirit intentionally hid herself from me. Because I completely overlooked that whole episode of the spirit descending in the form of a DOVE when Jesus was baptized. Good grief!
But even as I marveled at my glaring oversight, I couldn’t help but smile that I remembered the Spirit on the wings of a song that bears a beautiful promise:
Three Little Birds
By Bob Marley
Don’t worry about a thing
‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Singing’ don’t worry about a thing
‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Rise up this mornin’
Smiled with the risin’ sun
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin’ sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true
Saying’, (this is my message to you)
Singing’ don’t worry ’bout a thing
‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright
There’s a lot of worry going around these days as our world continues to pitch and roll from this pandemic. But the Spirit is with us. We might overlook her, but she’s there—singing sweet songs of comfort to soothe our weary souls.
As nature has started to come back to life, I hope you’ve heard the birds singing. I hope they encourage you to take a deep breath and listen to the song the Spirit is singing to you.
In Love,
Pastor Annette