I love birds. I’m fascinated by them and could honestly sit in the swing all day watching them visit the feeders in my yard. Didn’t mean to have so many feeders…some are from Alexander City, a few poles with feeders were for hanging baskets, already had poles and feeders here in Roanoke before I moved here permanently. But I had to get woodpecker feeders for my downy woodpecker friends, suet feeders for the wrens and red bellied woodpeckers, humming bird feeders… I just love my birds!

Birds sing songs of praise everyday, all day till the dark day’s dusk sends them to roost. Some birds start their symphonies when the early sunrise warms their wings, others take to the sky, the high tree branches, or the thin power lines to sing their prayers. Psalm 148:13 reads, “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven.”

The most common symbol of the Holy Spirit in Biblical scripture is a dove. In the Old Testament we read that a dove signaled the end of the flood. The dove brought Noah an olive branch as a symbol of peace and deliverance. When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit descended on him as a dove. “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him,” Matthew 3:16.

Saint Francis of Assisi said to the birds: “My little sisters, many are the bonds which unite us to God. And your duty is to praise Him everywhere and always, because He has let you free to fly wherever you will, and has given you a double and threefold covering and the beautiful plumage you wear.” The birds are like disciples for the Lord, urging us to sing songs and compose symphonies of praise for all God’s gifts and blessings, telling us to gather together to weather the storms, to be greateful for the warmth of the sun, appreciative of the life giving rain.

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark,” Rabindranath Tagore. With our faith we feel the warmth of God even in the darkness. When we spread our wings and fly, our belief in God guides our way. We soar and fly freely with our dreams on the faithfulness of God and his grace. If we give up on our dreams with our faith questioned, we’re like a bird with a broken wing, dragging along the ground. The birds teach us to have faith and trust that God will provide what we need. “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.”

I love St. Francis of Assisi’s Sermon to the Birds —“My little sisters the birds, ye owe much to God, your creator, and ye ought to sing his praise at all times and in all places, because he has given you liberty to fly about into all places; and though ye neither spin nor sew, He has given you a twofold and a threefold clothing for yourselves and for your offspring. Two of all your species He sent into the Ark with Noah that you might not be lost to the world; besides which, He feeds you, though ye neither sow nor reap. He has given you fountains and rivers to quench your thirst, mountains and valleys in which to take refuge, and trees in which to build your nests; so that your Creator loves you much, having thus favored you with such bounties. Beware, my little sisters, of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praise to God. Amen.”

Let’s thank God for the beautiful little songbirds that teach us to sing praises of thanks to our Heavenly Father.

“God of all feathered beings, thank you for birds. Thank you for their early morning songs. I, too, lift a song to heaven when morning breaks.” — Unknown