We hung a pretty bird-feeder under the shelter of the veranda to entice seed eating birds there. We could watch them through the window as they fed but the birds never came. A number of different birds should have come in from the garden for lovely fresh seed but they all totally ignored the bird-feeder.
I walked around the veranda where I could see and hear them in the bushes and trees but they kept away. They were too scared of me to come near.
Frustrated, I shook the feeder to spill seed on to the pavers, so that it spread out like a banquet for them. They watched and waited until I disappeared through the door and then only the common brown sparrows came. None of the more exotic birds bothered to share in the banquet or to acknowledge even the feeder or the seed.
The sparrows had a wonderful meal but they never looked up to where it came from. They never saw the connection between the bird-feeder and the seed, they waited for it to be shaken out but kept their distance and waited until they could feed at their leisure.
Every day, I would walk out and shake seed down for them and they would wait until I disappeared before they swooped to search out the pieces they liked best. But they scattered like scared thieves if I came into view. They never observed that my love for them was demonstrated by the seed I put out and they never connected the bird-feeder with the seed.
To this day they have not discovered the bird-feeder. They wait to pick up crumbs when they could help themselves to a marvelous meal of wonderful variety.
Like birds, the more exotic members of our race completely ignore the bird-feeder and never share even the crumbs and I thought how much like little brown sparrows most of us are. We scatter like thieves if the Lord comes near and we wait apart from Him to search out the bits of His Word we want to hear. We do not open the Bible for ourselves to find a marvelous meal of wonderful variety, we are contented with crumbs provided by someone who shakes the seed down for us and scatters it at our feet.
Like sparrows, we come to the seed but we never come to the bird-feeder. As Jesus said, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39).
We pick up the crumbs shaken down by others but we should not be scared to come to the One who provides the full banquet. His love for us is demonstrated through His bird-feeder, the Bible, and it brings us to the giver Himself.
Elizabeth Price