All of us have childhood memories that reach back into the recesses of the mind. One of my earliest memories involves me and my brothers roughhousing with our father on the living room floor. Another involves sitting in a pile of leaves when I couldn’t have been older than three or four.
No matter how far back your memories go, your life goes back farther. Our first conscious thoughts were formed by brains that had already been developing for years. And during these unremembered years, you were fed and protected by others. You were clothed and comforted. You were sung to sleep and taught to walk.
The more you think about these years of emerging consciousness, the more conscious you become of your helplessness to survive them. Who fed you? Who kept you warm? Who gave you a place to sleep and protection from the myriad evils that can befall an infant child?
No matter whether they were parents or grandparents, they were people who loved you. And they were giving you the necessities of your life long before you even knew that life had necessities.
In reflecting on these countless graces, you begin to understand your special attachment to those who gave you existence, nourishment and protection. And those special people, in turn, each have their own story. Generation upon generation were conceived, born and cared for until they themselves became caregivers for the next generation.
What is true of your personal history is also true of every beast of the field, every bird of the air, and every plant in the ground. Life requires a life-giver. And all living things need nourishment and protection to survive. Consider the meaning of this for your life. “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26).
In some ways, birds don’t need nearly as much care as human beings do. From the day of their hatching to their first flight is measured in weeks, not years. But, in another sense, birds never to grow out of their need for special care.
Unlike humans, birds cannot be taught to plant gardens, protect and water seedlings, or harvest their crops. God must do all of that for them. And he does. There is no single bird on the face of this planet that could have lived a moment without God planting, cultivating, and storing up food for creatures that cannot do these things for themselves.
But just because you differ from the birds in this way, does not mean that you differ from them in every way. Even when you do infinitely more things than birds could possibly do, you remain forever dependent upon someone else to do what you cannot.
You plant but depend on God to bring the necessary weather. You work but depend on God to crown our efforts with His blessing. You eat but count on God to cause our bodies to digest the food. You breathe but count on God to fill their air with oxygen and make your lungs continue to operate.
Just like the birds of the air, you remain forever helpless. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your superiority to them means that you are any less dependent than they. You are only dependent in different things.
But your superiority to the birds does mean one thing. It means that, in God’s eyes, you are of more value than they. It means that His commitment to care for you, nourish you, protect you from harm, and preserve your life is infinitely greater than that same commitment which He shows daily for the birds.
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33)
