Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. (Luke 12:6 NIV)

My friend, Kjell Austad has a bird feeder in his backyard where he and his wife, Nancy can watch the birds. Spending time in the quiet of the morning watching the various birds come and go brought Kjell to think about this passage from the Bible.

“Some of the birds that feed here must be the same ones from day to day. If God knows every bird, I wonder if I could recognize any single bird? “

Kjell says the various birds do look different and have individual characteristics. I wonder if one of them will become memorable enough?

God knows them all. From the eagle that nests in the big pine tree on the shore of my parent’s cottage on Big Stone Lake in Wisconsin to the poor pigeon that must have died in flight and just came tumbling down from the night sky out of nowhere in front of my car on Roscoe Boulevard. My son was with me, and we both kind of looked at each other and said, “Did you see that?”

Well, we know God did.

The estimate of the global bird population is from 200 to 400 billion birds (“How many birds are there? Biodiversity and Conservation). That is quite a range of difference, yet not for God. He knows the exact number and He knows every one.

Interesting that Jesus uses the “sparrow” as an example of an abundant and ubiquitous bird, as the most widespread and commonly seen wild bird in the world is probably the European House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)!

If God is caring for every one of those sparrows I don’t think we have anything to worry about. At least that is what Jesus thinks.

So, Kjell, make any bird friends, yet?

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