Cardinals, titmice, chickadees, juncos, sparrows…all of
these varieties of birds and probably more that I haven’t seen yet have been
enjoying the grains and seeds I’ve put out on the patio and deck today. I usually feed the birds, but when it’s
warmish and no snow on the ground, they don’t come all that much. But when the snow comes or it gets very cold,
they’re all over the feast on the deck.
An interesting creation, birds. Carrying very small brains, but having within
them somehow the knowledge of flight and a small body that manages to stay warm
in the coldest weather, birds in general are a lesson in both the simple and
the complex.
For example, the chicken incubates her eggs for about 21
days. During that time, the egg goes
from a single cell to a chick complete with the knowledge to scratch the ground
for food, drink water, and huddle together for warmth. Baby ducks, ducklings, incubate for two or
three days longer, and come out of the shell with the knowledge of water and
swimming. Other birds incubate their
eggs for a longer or shorter time, but all come out of the shell with inherent
knowledge of how to survive.
As simple and as stupid as one might think birds are, they
in reality retain within them an amazing knowledge of direction and place in
the environment, where to look for the food that they need, the dynamics of
flight, how to raise their young, how to build a nest, and for many, where to
migrate, how to get there, and how to get back…never having been there before.
We used to call someone a “dumb cluck” when we thought that
person was less than intelligent somehow.
Of course, we were referring to a chicken. But my mind about chickens and birds in
general was changed when we kept chickens for several years when the boys were
little. There is nothing stupid or dumb
about a chicken, or other kind of bird, for that matter.
These creatures of God’s creation do their part in the great
scheme of things, and are good, just as they were millennia ago when He first
created them and called them “good”.
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