Following and Trusting : Encountering God Out of the Box

As a little girl visiting my mom’s childhood farm in Kansas, I remember my loving grandmother had a wooden plaque on her wall with a painting on it. There were two birds on it and a poem. Portions of this poem was in my head this morning around 9am as I walked across my frosted front lawn to my car in the cool morning. I really wanted to remember the full poem so I did a search and found this…

Overheard In An Orchard

Said the Robin to the Sparrow
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin
“Friend I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”

–Elizabeth Chaney – 1859

Lines of this poem has come back to me several times through the years and I’m certain it was inspired by this verse…

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” – Matt 6:26,27