More Valuable than Birds

A few days ago I refilled my birdfeeder. I was tardy. It had been empty for a few days, and I had not gotten around to refilling it. And though the snow is gone from the ground, and the birds can forage for seeds, I enjoy watching them accumulate at the feeder, so I continue to refill it, even when it takes me a few days to get to it.

As I was watching the birds gather to feast, listening to them chatter, I again marveled at the different colors, shapes and sizes of the various kinds of birds – plenty of sparrows, a few house finches, cedar waxwings, cardinals, and occasionally a chickadee. The robins that came north very early this year prefer the tiny, probably fermented, crabapples on the tree in my front yard. But they were present at this gathering, too.

The birds are so beautiful. The bright red of the cardinals, the subtle colorings in the little sparrows – some with a white neck resembling a clerical collar, robins with their red-orange breasts, and the chickadee with his little black cap. What creativity God displayed by his color selections for birds – and these are just a few of the many he made.

Watching the birds, my mind wandered to thinking about how we tend to compare ourselves to others. I am aware that birds do not have the same cognitive abilities that humans do, but just imagine with me for a minute. What if the female cardinal, who is mostly a light gray with just a bit of red in her wings, was looking at the male, who is a beautiful red, and she began comparing and feeling inferior because she is not as brightly colored? Or what if the little chickadee with his black cap was jealous of the finch with the red on his head?

The sparrows have different markings, even within that species. What if one little sparrow was unhappy because she didn’t have that little white collar that her friends have? Or what if the cedar waxwing wished to have a red-orange breast like the robin?

Crazy? Maybe a bit. I don’t even know if birds perceive colors, but I’m pretty sure they can’t think well enough to compare their feathers to another bird’s. (There’s a reason why some people have been labeled “bird brain.” Not nice, but true. Birds’ brains are tiny.)

So, with our superb cognitive abilities, we DO compare. We compare looks, body image, and clothes. And then we go further and compare homes, cars, perceived incomes, educations and even kids’ behavior, intelligence, and achievements.

What are we accomplishing by comparing ourselves to others? Sometimes we look up to another person and try to model our behavior after that person. That’s not all bad. It’s good for us to have people we admire and want to emulate. But we are the people God made us to be. We are not someone else. We do not have the hair, body type, taste, clothing, home, car or kids that someone else has. We are ourselves. And that’s a good thing.

Of course we can try to improve who we are by study, working out, eating healthfully, dressing in a way that is flattering to our body type, getting a good hair cut and style, or whatever else we can do for self improvement. That’s all maintenance work on these earthly bodies. But the fact is you are the you God made you to be.

God made us with the personalities, coloring, body types that we are. So rather than compare yourself to another, remember that you are a unique creation of God’s, and you are beautiful whatever color, shape or personality you are.

“There will never be another you, and God meant it that way. He is the ultimate Creator, with more unique combinations of DNA at his disposal that there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the whole world…God loves you, exactly the way you are. Period.” (“Every Little Thing,” Deidra Riggs, page 164.)

The birds are all beautiful. Even the lowly sparrow. I don’t think it’s any accident that Jesus told the crowd, “…how much more valuable you are than birds! … Why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke 12:24-25) He was telling them that they have eternal value.

Jesus wanted the crowd to understand that God would take care of them, and he ended that parable with the statement, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (John 12:34)

That’s a lesson for us to stop comparing ourselves to others, believe that God will care for us, and for us to focus on what is important – our relationship with God and with our fellow human beings – and not what we look like or what we own. This life is not a competition, no matter what social media and publications tell us.

God loves you. And God’s love for you cannot be changed or reversed, no matter what you do or if you believe him or not.  

Where is your treasure? That’s where your heart is also.