For the Birds

My parents had a bird clock in the living room of my North Carolina childhood home in the early 2000s. Every hour, the clock would chime the familiar melody of a popular bird. I can still hear the melancholic tune of the mourning dove and the jovial chirping of the blue jay – the South Carolina State bird, the bird of my birth state. My parents have always had a liking for birds. There was always time set aside for refilling finch food or mixing sugar water. And to be honest, it kind of rubbed off on me. But these memories pale in comparison to a statement that my father made to me one night as my teenage self scurried down the wooden stairs of my North Georgia home and out onto the driveway. Peering out the door, he said calmly:

“Don’t forget to listen to the birds.” 

I’ve been a public high school English teacher and head cheerleading coach for almost eleven years now. I have the privilege of helping lead worship at my church home, Burning Bush Baptist Church. My husband, Drake, and I will have been happily married for eleven years this May. We have 4 sets of furry paws – that we call children – and my extended family and I are tightly knit. So naturally, I consider myself humbled, grateful, and thankful for a cup that runneth over with the grace and favor that our Good Father has bestowed upon my life. Yet quite frequently, and even knowingly at times, I fail to listen to those birds.

Our carousel-of-a-life will never stop its rotation. It will keep in step with inevitable time. Unless – we defy gravity and use as much measly muscle as possible to step off the wheel, plant on the ground, grip the structure, and slow the intricate horses from rising and falling until, finally, the carousel subsides. When we elude our noises –  alarm clocks, routines, travels, emails, meetings, checkboxes, childcare, events, entertainment, chores, worry – and bring our noises to a halt, we allow a peace – a stillness – through which God speaks. 

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10). Stillness allows us time to shower over Him His due praises and cling onto His promises of love. Stillness allows us time to reflect over and meditate on His Word – a rich overflow of scriptural goodness. Psalm 1: 2 says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.”  Stillness allows us time to reflect on our waiting, thus fine-tuning our steps in faith: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37). Stillness allows us a time to seek God’s will, and receive His guidance. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Perfect peace is fleeting for most. Reaching a perfection of peace and stability with God our Father takes a deliberate focus of our minds, as also commanded in Matthew 22:37 which instructs people to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37). It is during the stillness of God’s presence when we will hear from Him. But we have to create that stillness before it can happen. We will hear the melancholic tune of that mourning dove or the jovial chirping of that blue jay only when we intentionally stop and surrender our ears. 

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Step outside and really listen.

Do you hear the birds?

What is He saying to you, today?

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