We’ve been watching birds here on this country hill for over thirty years and have compiled quite a long list of regular visitors. Year-round, the chickadees rend the air between forest and feeder, and then stitch it back up again after sampling some seed. Mourning doves are the faithful clean-up crew on the ground below, and winter cardinals show off their plumage, the only splash of color in a gray world.
Rose-breasted grosbeaks and hummingbirds brighten the palette when the weather warms, and enterprising avian thieves strip the holly berries off our bushes by the back steps. Birdsong is the background music to summer weeding in the garden, and I listen for loons as I hang sheets and towels on the clothesline.
Some of my favorite people love to pull a chair up to the windows and watch the comings and goings at the bird feeders! It’s a quiet, reflective activity, and I like to think that my grandchildren are learning important lessons about the character of God and his creation as they “look at the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26). Life is fast and the world gets loud, but when you’re looking out the window with wonder, something valuable is preserved.
Bird watching is a quiet, reflective activity, and I like to think that my grandchildren are learning important lessons about the character of God and his creation as they “look at the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26).
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Author and pastor Kevin Burrell reminds me that “when Jesus calls us to consider the birds, he wants us to understand things like redemptive love, trusting faith, and unshakable hope. Those lessons are the more important points, but Jesus used birds to showcase these greater realities. And so, on my best days, birdwatching is a means to a greater end, a window through which the character of God is illustrated.”
Burrell was inspired by the influential English theologian John Stott, also an avid birder who coined the term ornitheology to describe “the interplay between creational attentiveness and biblical teaching, or specifically, the study of birds and the study of God.” For the believer, it’s easy to see how the two intersect.
Considering Sparrows weaves unique observations from birdwatching with meaningful insights and applications from Scripture. Working from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Burrell considers the birds as they teach us important lessons about the gospel. Alongside Aedan Peterson’s illustrations, the book is as delightful as it is edifying.
I learned from Considering Sparrows that the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest animal on the planet. They also model a slow discipleship with their young that the church would do well to imitate. From now on when I see flocks of birds coordinating themselves in a midair, winged dance, I’ll be reminded of Paul’s description of the church’s unity as we “stand firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). I want to live in the strength of contentment and the power of longterm endurance like the Mallard duck who is at home in the air, in the water, and on the land.
If you’re looking for joy, open the book of Philippians—and then open a window and listen for the pure worship of the bird chorus.
Considering Sparrows by Kevin Burrell weaves unique observations from birdwatching with meaningful insights and applications from Scripture. @penguinrandom
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We LOVE watching the birds! It actually started with my nephew who learned the names and bird calls of so many of our local birds and passed it on to my middle son who then became obsessed. We had bird books and bird clocks and this toy/machine that had all these bird calls programmed into it so we could memorize/learn them all. Then we started in with the bird feeders and now we almost all have a bird identifier app on our phones so when we hear them and can’t see them we know what to keep our eyes open for.
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