Beautiful Lessons in a Bad Day

Excellent or Praiseworthy is posted on Monday and Thursday nights.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. — Matthew 6:33-34a

On the worst day of last week I walked into the garage to find a female cardinal had trapped herself above my open garage door and broken her neck. She was flailing around on the cement and I couldn’t do anything for her. I didn’t know how to kill her mercifully and was too afraid to try to comfort her in a towel. I was helpless and utterly useless. The only thing I could do was talk to her. So I did—and then I sang her an old hymn, His Eye is on the Sparrow.

Life has been very difficult here lately. My husband is deployed, my five-year-old is struggling with ADHD—so I’m struggling, and I’m fighting a currently un-winnable battle with secondary infertility. It’s overwhelming and I often feel I’m drowning in my own swamp of worry.

Like the bird, don’t we sometimes feel so helpless in this world? There are so many bad things going on and so little we can really do to make any changes. But we can know and serve the One who can change anything—the Creator of all things. God knew we had these tendencies and He addressed them in the Bible in Matthew 6:25-34. Through the writer Matthew, God tells us not to worry six times in just nine verses—He knows I need repetition!

Civilla Martin’s words capture the essence of these words of Scripture—whether or not she planned it. Do you know the hymn?

“Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come?
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

I know it’s ridiculous to sing to a dying bird. So you’ll think me even crazier in saying that she quieted down and seemed to listen to me sing it. It’s a little far-fetched, but what if she knew the truth of the song? What if birds somehow know their value and are content in it? They were made to live and work and glorify God and that’s what they do. They don’t seem to struggle against God’s will for their lives. They build their nests, hunt for food and raise their young. And when they suffer or even when their lives are over, it is a total surprise, because they were simply living. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” —Matthew 6:26

The next verse of the hymn says:

“Let not your heart be troubled,’ His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

Worries and fears can sink us—they exhaust our energy by consuming our thoughts. But, why?

Questions to Share:

1. God has promised to take those and provide for our needs. Have you forgotten about the daily business of living for Him?

2. Are God’s promises things you know or are they things you live?