Those Noisy Birds

I was looking for quiet on Sunday afternoon.

Wanting to escape the noise of the dishwasher, laundry machine and one of the many football games being broadcast in our living room, I decided to step outside for a moment of silence.

Best laid plans. I don’t know if you’re much of a bird watcher, but you don’t have to be an expert to notice that the birds are certainly on the move these days. It’s migration time. According to one article, thousands of birds will choose a stopover point no bigger than a few hundred square feet to rest during their long journey.

Sunday’s rest stop was in my backyard. The woods just 20 feet behind my house were filled with chatty, busy birds. As if the noisy chorus wasn’t deafening enough, add to it the percussion of walnuts thudding to ground under the weight of the countless birds. My backyard made Lucas Oil Stadium seem like a monastery retreat.

Amid the frenetic chaos, I was struck with a thought. These birds were in complete unity. They seemed to have decided together when, where, and how long to stop during their thousand mile journey. I didn’t notice any of them trying to thwart the plan; they miraculously all seemed to know their purpose and how to go about accomplishing it.

The birds seem to have figured out something so easily forgotten. Unity is important to God.

Ephesians 4:3 says the following:

Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace.

A W Tozer reminds us that this unity is best accomplished as we individually are tuned to God.
"If a hundred pianos were merely tuned to each other, their pitch would not be very accurate. But if they were all tuned to one tuning fork, they would automatically be tuned to each other".

Those birds all seemed to have been in tune with their Creator last Sunday. They worked together, and all went about accomplishing their mighty feat of migrating thousands of miles.

As Shepherds, will you share a time when you experienced the strength and joy of unity when you and others were all in tune with God?