“Thelma, look at that bird feeder!” my husband exclaims in disbelief. “I just filled it up this morning!” It was remarkable! The level of birdseed had gone down by nearly half.
“It’s the cold weather,” I say, “They are stocking up for the winter.” Sometimes they can finish the contents of the long, cylindrical feeder in a day. No doubt they will need all the reserve they can build into their fragile bodies to keep warm and maintain health to reproduce next spring.
One of Howard’s favorite hobbies is feeding and watching the birds that gather around our porch feeder and front lawn bird bath. Recently, he had forgotten to buy feed for awhile, and it seemed as if the birds had all gone south for the winter. We hadn’t seen any to speak of for days. The feeder still sat unvisited after we had filled it, and Howard was puzzled.
“The word has gotten out by bird telegraph that it’s slim pickings at our house,” I told him. “Give them a few days.” A couple of birds showed up later, and then, sure enough, it was if they had all gotten a signal through their telephone wire perch that “there is food in Egypt.”
My granddaughter, 4-year-old Anne-Marie, was heard praying recently: “Dear God, I just bless that I will dream about cowboys, and toys and princesses.” We have been hearing a teaching on “The Blessing” recently, dealing with Aaronic Blessing of Numbers 6:23-26.
The words that Aaron, the priest, was instructed by Moses to speak over the children of Israel are, “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” The emphasis on the teaching we heard is that we can give the blessing ourselves, as Christians. For instance, we can bless our food, bless others, etc. After all, the Bible says we are priests (1Peter 2:5,9). Many churches use that blessing today as a benediction.
Anne-Marie was blessing her dreams (maybe a good hedge against nightmares!), and Howard was blessing the birds with food. We are blessed to be a blessing!
I enjoy feeding the wild birds, too and it really does seem as if they have a telegraph system to communicate where the food is!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted you to know that I'll be shutting my blog down. Between problems with Blogger and this computer not working properly, it simply is too frustrating to keep it going. I have enjoyed visiting here and reading your blog and when my computer is working I'll continue to visit.
Marsha