Today was a glorious Easter Sunday. The blue sky was sunny and home to a few wisps of thinly sketched white clouds. The songbirds and bumble bees and hummingbirds and the occasional butterfly flitted around my yard enjoying nature’s dance of spring. The warm breezes played wind chime symphonies that blended in with the birds’ songs. Penelope and I spent most of the day on the porch soaking up the beauty of Mother Earth. Oldest brother came for a visit late afternoon and we discussed our birds and upcoming gardens. He didn’t talk about his worrisome squirrels so I guess they aren’t tormenting him now.

I am so enamored with the songbirds this time of year. Lots of the birds are dressing up in their new plumage, singing for their mates and doing love dances. The male American goldfinches have donned their Crayola yellow sport coats fashioned with jet black wing and tail feathers, so handsome perched on the feeders; their female mates just as beautifully dressed in their Easter frocks of pale yellow and olive with shining black and white wing feathers.

The male cardinals have never been more striking in their dark crimson robes, their partners modestly dressed in their frocks of fawn brown, their wing feathers highlighted in red and orange, their little Easter bonnet crests trimmed in red. My yard is full of these birds at twilight. When the male cardinals and male goldfinches sit on the feeders together its a crayon box of color. Makes my heart smile ‘cause I know Chief sends the birds to warm my heart when I’m missing him.

Birds are biblical scripture symbols of new beginnings, of hope, and of freedom. They also serve as symbols of intelligence, courage and strength. The dove is used to symbolize the spirit of God. The dove brought back an olive branch to Noah symbolizing the peace between God and man. Matthew 6:26 reads, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.”

Found a long poem by Carol Adams titled A Prayer for the Birds. Here are the first four lines of the poem. These four lines compose a beautiful short prayer. “God of all feathered beings. Thank you for the birds. Thank you for their early morning songs. I, too, lift a song to heaven when morning breaks.” Such a pretty prayer and one of my favorites.

Lots of nights after I read my devotional at bedtime, I read this quote from Terry Tempest Williams. “I pray to the birds. I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day — the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.” I copied the quote and pasted it in my favorite devotional book. I think of these words as a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving for the glorious little songbirds that give me so much joy each day.

I look at the songbirds as jewels decorating my yard, small feathered creatures that inspire me with their beauty and their songs of praise. They give me hope.

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.” — Victor Hugo