5th December 2021

Some hatchlings in Spring, are now ‘hoplings’ in Summer, and are now hopping about the branches outside my study window. Some of them are Butcher birds, and some Noisy Miners – who certainly live up to their name. They are relentless in their chirping, and shameless in their constant requests for food. My heart goes out to their poor parents who spend their days flitting here and flitting there to find enough food to satisfy their insatiable offspring.

But perhaps the parents love to do this. God does. There is a lovely invitation in one of the old Psalms that is set in the context of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. “Open wide your mouth,” says God, “and I will fill it.” Now there’s a generous promise, and one without boundaries. However large the capacity, God has the resources to fill it. And however large the appetite, God has the will to supply it. And it seems that He loves so to do.

There is a warm expression in the Message version of the Bible, in that section in the Sermon on the Mount, which bids us to consider the birds of the air, for it says, they are ‘careless in the care of God’. Perhaps another phrase would not be out of place as a suitable supplement: They are shameless in the presence of a loving Father. Shameless to ask, and shameless to open their mouths wide to receive. For according to the Psalm, God is honoured when we do.

DM 5^th December 2021