The Birds Shout

It’s spring!

The trees are budding, jonquils are blooming, grass is greening, and people are actually smiling again. My husband and I went for a walk today and found several lawns being re-landscaped and also some beautiful trees in bloom. Even the dogs were wagging their tails.

There’s a bird feeder outside the picture window. This time of year, we’re seeing several varieties of woodpeckers, finches, wrens, chickadees, cardinals, starlings, nuthatches . . . each one with beautiful, delicate feathers.

I think birds are fascinating. I’m not a “birder,” but what I do know about birds, both by observation and a little bit of research, shows me that birds shout.

They shout something important.

God doesn’t want us to miss it.

They tell us they were created, and that they didn’t simply evolve.

Evolution says there were millions and millions of simultaneous mutations, each positive, that resulted in millions of variations. Birds supposedly evolved from the dinosaurs. The Archaeopteryx is supposed to be the missing link, though not a direct ancestor of modern birds. (Figure that out!) The first part of the reptile that disappeared as it became a bird was its bony tail. Early evolving birds supposedly had wings with claws and snouts with teeth, instead of beaks. Modern toothless birds evolved from the toothed birds in the Cretaceous period. Somehow, birds branched out into walking birds--like emus and ostriches--and flying birds, though no fossil evidence for any of this exists. Scientists are divided on the dividing, and they are stumped by the variety of existing birds. A study from 2008 in Science studied the DNA sequencing of 169 species of birds. The findings mean the whole evolutionary tree on birds may need to be reworked. At any rate, scientists agree and disagree. (Wikipedia)

The Bible says God created birds. Read Genesis 1:20-23. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. All the fowls of the air were created on the fifth day of creation, along with all the creatures in the seas. Birds are created beings. Before land animals and people, God created birds.

Have you ever noticed the variety in colors, feathers, body shapes, beaks, behavior, flight, walking, food preferences, etc.? I think it is so amazing to watch the nuthatch eat upside down while the chickadee next to him is right side up. Who taught a woodpecker how to get a good meal? Who taught a cardinal how to sing? Why do some birds prefer berries, while another species likes thistle? Why are there big birds and small birds, black birds, and red ones? What is the purpose behind all this variety?

I personally think that God has a purpose bigger than birds. I think He wants them to declare God’s glory to people. I think that, when people start to observe even these little guys of creation, they start to appreciate their beauty and quirkiness and variety.

And maybe, people might just turn to God, the One Who made these little guys in the first place. Our great God designed every feather, every cute little body, every funny way that they could eat, every birdcall, every flight.

God knew we’d be watching.

Praise the LORD from the earth . . . Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven (Psalm 148:7a, 10-13).

The birds are shouting,

“Praise the Lord!”