Just dropped a macadamia nut cookie on the floor and as it rolled away Penelope and I raced after it. I won and yes I ate it. My youngest son was laughing saying, “I’m watching my elderly mother race a dog for a cookie on the floor. Sad.” He enjoys my elderly escapades and calls me Cripplest on days my knee hurts. He does it with humor and love and we laugh at my hobbling around. Charles Dickens said, “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

Today was beautifully overcast in cigar smoke grays, pale aquas, and melted vanillas. Did not see the sunset from the porch today but I know Mother Nature conspired with the sun and Father Sky to create a magnificent sunset, brushing her watercolors across the horizon in Hawaiian pinks and bold oranges. Father Sky had to drag the moon and stars from their cloud covers, too, but they were hidden from view tonight. I’m happy to watch the twilight settle and the night bloom awake in the black velvet sky.

I was watching all the beautiful little songbirds in my yard today and thinking of biblical scripture in Genesis where God brought the animals to Adam so he could name them. The scripture reads, “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field.” I wonder if Adam gave great thought to naming the animals. It’s obvious that God took special care as he created and colored each species. I know he loved painting the butterfly’s wings and the zebra’s stripes. He colored our world so gloriously.

I love the songbirds in my yard. I feel God’s presence when I see the beauty in his creation of the little wondrous birds. When they sit and stare at me, I feel the beats of their hearts, the strength of their wings. I see God’s watercolor brush strokes on their plumage and hear his love through their songs. The crimson cardinals remind me that God is saving me a place in his eternal kingdom where I’ll be reunited with my loved ones who have departed this life.

Terry Tempest Williams writes, “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.” Those are such beautiful thoughts. Imagine our prayers being taken to heaven straight to God’s ears on the wings of songbirds.

Birds are depicted in the Bible praising God through their lyrical songs. Psalm 148:13 reads, “Birds praise God by singing, and all of creation is invited to praise God.” Birds are testaments to God’s care of the world he created, a reminder for us to trust in God’s plans for our lives. “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them,” Matthew 6:26.

William Blake wrote, “No bird soars too high if his soars with his own wings.” Our wings are our talents and our hard work we use to forge our own paths through life. Our faith in God gives us the strength and innate ability to soar. God cares for us as he does the smallest birds. Scripture in Isaiah reads that “those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles.”

We can be a songbird for God by singing praises to him, expressing our joy and gratitude through song. In Psalm 84 we read, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!” Let’s make a joyful noise for the Lord. We don’t have to join the church choir, we can sing him praises with our voice in the shower, whistle our thanks while we work, or hum a hymn of gratitude as we rock a grandchild to sleep.

“May my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living.” — E.E. Cummings