The Secret Life of Birds – How To Live a Life of Continuous Worry-Free Provision (Part 1)

“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;” Job 12:7

I want to answer a question and reveal a secret to you. (It will take several blog posts to do so.) It is truly profound, and I suspect, greatly overlooked. But its truth can set you free.

It began the other day as Judah and I were headed out for our morning walk. I was considering the incredible complexity and detail of God’s creation and the absurdity of the theory of evolution.

Have you ever thought about the millions of species on the planet, each with their own complexity and interdependence? And how (for evolution to have worked), they would have had to all evolve from the primordial soup at the same time – complete with fully evolved food sources that self-replicate.

Consider the lowly bumblebee… They say that bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly, but they do because their flexible wings, moving in a figure-eight pattern create lift in both the upstroke and downstroke. With what did God make their wings, that could be so lightweight, yet withstand prolonged flapping of their wings at 200 beats per second? It’s an engineering marvel!

But so is everything God made.

Consider the beautifully captivating hummingbird with their iridescent feathers, which can appear to change color due to the microscopic structure of the feathers and the way light interacts with them to produce shimmering colors that can change depending on the angle of light. How awesome is that!!!

They can hover in place for extended periods, (with their heart beating up to 1,260 times per minute), fly sideways and backwards at will with amazing precision and unparalleled agility with their wings beating 50 – 80 times per second, and traveling at speeds up to 60 mph at distances as far as 500 miles without stopping – while taking up to 250 breaths per minute and enjoying the scenery. (That sure was a long sentence!)

How could God be so detailed with respect to His creation as to leave nothing to chance and yet, not be mindful of you? Do you think it’s possible for you to have a need and for God not to notice, or worse yet, not care? Jesus said that not even a sparrow “falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will” and added “you are of more value than many sparrows”. (Matthew 10:31)

Do you think He cannot or will not provide for you? Do you think He is capable of forgetting you or lying to you? In Isaiah 49:15 God promises, “yet I will not forget you” In Hebrews 6:18 “it is impossible for God to lie”.

But I hear you saying that your needs are not met. Do you make God a liar? As Paul said in Romans 3:4, “Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.” 

Your lack is not a failure on God’s part. You must get that through your thick skull and dull heart. (And so must I.) Our problem is that we don’t see the provision He has provided.

Consider the light spectrum… the human eye can only see less than 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum. Does that mean that what we can’t see, doesn’t exist? Certainly not!

Just like you need special equipment to see UV light, you sometimes need a special gift to see the provision that abounds around you.

Fortunately, according to Romans 12:3, that gift has been given to every person on earth. It enables anyone to see that which may otherwise be invisible to the natural eye. Paul calls it “the measure of faith”.

It enables you to see with the “eyes of your understanding” (Ephesians 1:18) which reside in your heart, (the incubator of faith), where belief springs forth (Romans 10:10), takes root and becomes unshakeable, unwavering, and unmoved by the toxic weeds of unbelief fed by the observable, but temporal, circumstances of life.

The unseen realities which we are encouraged to see, are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18) and therefor superior to the physical temporal things which we are encouraged to not cast our gaze upon. That means the unseen realities, powered by faith, have jurisdiction or power over the observable things.

It is by thought (imagination) that you first form a work of art, a piece of furniture or even a meal. Everything begins with the unseen, but then advances and alters or shapes the visible realm. That is the realm you and I interact with and are called to reign in through the One, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).

It is by faith that you act on what you know to be true, despite it not being presently visible to the natural eye. It was by faith that in 1988, I ordered 25,000 leather bound copies of The Bible Incorporated to my home, despite not having any publishing experience, nor any distribution outlets, or even the money to pay the shipping to my house, let alone the printing and binding.

When I placed my initial order, the printer tried to caution me, saying that 80% of books published in America never sell more than 5,000 copies and I was ordering five times that number to be shipped to the basement of my house. But my eyes were fixed on what couldn’t be seen with the natural eye and I refused to look at the natural with any sense of care or worry.

All I had to do, was sell enough books in the first 30 days to pay for the approximately $100,000 print run. No problem. In fact, we were sold out in just eight months. Little did I know it then, but I unknowingly emulated the secret life of birds and the book went on to become one of the best selling Christian business books of all time.

That brings me to the beginning of what I want to share, albeit while still leaving out tremendous detail and revelation so I won’t lose you in the weeds. (Life in so many ways is fractal.)

Jesus said… “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:26) And although you may have taken solace in them, you might not be living the worry-free life of birds that Jesus suggested was ours for taking.

I’m going to draw your attention to the first word of that verse… “Behold”.

It literally means to “hold with your eyes”. Far more than a casual glance or a disinterested acknowledgement, it implies giving serious consideration to what is being looked at.

Picture a bird in your mind… Better yet, greet the dawn with an early morning walk near some trees and let the birds greet you with joy. When you see them flying or resting on a tree branch, hold them with your eyes. Consider their habits. They neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet they are well fed.

How does that happen?

Does God stop by everyday with fresh food and drop it in their nest? What does that imply? The answer to that question which I’d love to get to in this blog, will have to wait till the next one. It’s too important to rush through and well worth the wait.

I can tell you that what I found, absolutely blew me away and it pains me to stop writing now. I knew this would be a big subject, which is why I arose at 3:30 this morning to start preparing it for you.

I hope you enjoy this series. (And if you do, please share this on social media and drop a comment along the way.)

And now, it’s time to take Judah out for his morning walk (he’s staring at me with his legs crossed and a pained look on his face 😀 🐕) and then to get to doing something else I learned from the birds of the air. (I’ll be sharing that with you shortly too!)