If you are like us, you will often look out of your window and see at least one very large pigeon waddling around. We have a bird table, with feeders, which attracts many different birds to our garden.
A little while ago we bought a new bird table as the old one was looking rather the worse for wear. When we got it home we realised it was not quite as big as our old one and consequently the larger birds could not get on to it. It did not take the blackbirds very long to perfect a technique that enabled them to do so. However, the pigeons, to put it bluntly, are just too fat and there is no way they can get on. We are glad that the blackbirds can because they love the currants that we put out for them, though we were not, I ashamed to say, terribly grieved when the pigeons couldn’t because there are far more of them and like as not they would eat the currants before the blackbirds could have any, except that the blackbirds are cleverer and know what time to expect them. (By the way, is it PC to call the pigeons fat? Anyway, I’ve done it now and I am just telling the truth!)
After some weeks, as I stood and watched, lots of small birds were pecking at the feeders and crumbs were dropping to the ground. To my amusement the aforementioned pigeons were waddling around eating the crumbs that had fallen. These big birds, who at times are real bullies, were having to rely on the crumbs that had been dropped by the little birds. I couldn’t help but smile because the ‘pecking order’ (don’t groan – deliberate pun!) had been reversed.
I also thought of the Scripture passage where Jesus talks about how God provides not just for the birds but for us too, explaining that as He provides for the smallest birds, how much more will He provide for us . . . “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
There is food for the birds provided in various ways, be they small or large, some regarded as a real nuisance. That is one lesson we can take from this verse. The other message we get is about our own worth: all children of God are valuable to Him and He places a higher value on us. We really do matter to Him; we should see to it that He matters just as much to us.
Pam