Why Birds Neither Sow nor Reap

Birds love to frolic on our front porch in the early morning, have fun there and sing. Jesus once explained how God wants exactly that for humans, too. Anyway, I like watching birds, being enthralled by their melodious chirps, while I sip coffee and get inspiration for my blog. I think they believe they have a rightful share of my porch, and it seems they see me as a fellow bird 🙌. They use my porch confidently while I'm there sitting quietly. A rightful share.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash.

Birds Show God's Design for Daily Life

We ought to learn from birds. And Jesus meant it. His parables are not just idle stories to entertain his audience. They help us see how Kingdom principles should easily work in ordinary daily life. In fact, they're so easy we doubt if they'd really work, or if they're all just idle stories. So we play safe and confine his parables to sermon illustrations. Nice examples. Nothing serious. 

But mind you, his Word on birds and the grass of the fields isn't just parable. It's a fact. Birds don't work and yet they eat. It's not a figure of speech, metaphor, hyperbole, an overstatement or anything like that. God provides for them even if they don't work for a living. They get their rightful share, not because they deserve it, but God in his grace, made it their right. And the principle (not working and yet eating) is not just for birds. It's for believers. It's their rightful share, by God's grace and mercy, and being co-heirs with Christ. Exactly why Jesus told people about birds' confidence (and why he's telling it to us today). That confidence is designed for believing humans, especially.

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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?

You see that confidence? "They do not sow or reap or store away in barns." It's not that they fail to do it. They just never do it. They believe they don't have to. God put that confidence in them and they're using it to the max, without question. Without any doubt. They're going to be fed, no matter what--work or no work. We need this in these hard times. Why do you think Jesus taught about bird confidence, specifically on not worrying? Because for some reason, we're more comfy worrying than trusting.

I meditated this one morning and asked the Lord why he had said this. Isn't this an irresponsible thing to say? I mean, with his gaining popularity and large following, how could he tell people it's okay not to worry about not working? Specifically, he was telling them it's okay not to "sow or reap or store away in barns," because anyway the Father will feed you the same way he feeds carefree, nonworking birds.

He didn't say it's okay to be idle or lazy. He said it's okay not to be worried about not working, like how birds aren't.

"They Do Not Sow..."

The responsible thing would've been to tell them about hardworking ants and bees and how they won't survive if they stopped working. We'd all prefer the advice to work hard so God would bless our efforts than say it's okay if you don't work. Or, the positive thing about birds would've been to highlight the early bird story--the proactive bird who caught the worm. 

If we were Jesus we'd prefer it this way: "Look at the early birds; they get up early in the morning to hunt. So your heavenly Father provides them with worms. Do your best and the Father will do the rest."

That would've sounded better and quite on a note which positive thinkers would've loved. In fact, it's the "sound advice" we often hear. But Jesus didn't say that. He stressed on birds that do not sow, reap or store, and yet are fed by the Father, as if he encouraged them to just frolic and do no work like birds. Jesus insinuated how we should be like them, and that true faith is having bird confidence, a radical trust that God will provide regardless of our work output, not because of man's hard labors, particularly for his provisions. Bruce Lee would probably say, be bird, my friend. 😄

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We Boast of Our Trees

My take is that it all starts with a hypocrite's prayer. That's what the context says. It's a prayer that tries to prove the worth of the one saying it. Thus, practicing righteousness to be seen by all is a big no-no, says Jesus at the outset of the chapter. Instead of a public show, he tells us to pray in private ("go to your room and close the door"). Likewise, we should fast in secret. But we love storing up treasures on earth where we get recognition and praise for things and efforts we show off. 

In short, we're too engrossed about how tall our trees become without seeing how the smallest seed is key to all this. Blind people cannot appreciate Kingdom seed. They just marvel at tall trees. If we fail to see what really matters in the Kingdom, the "light" we think we have within is really darkness and we end up serving two masters--God and ourselves. Our ego.

Ego goes against bird confidence. Ego says "God, I worked hard for this." Bird confidence says, "God provided everything."

Seed Before Food

The key is not to worry. But it's not just that. I think Jesus meant zero worry. Bird confidence, in short. Bird Seed, if I may say. By describing bird confidence, Jesus tells us what faith he wants from us. It's faith or confidence that says, work is good, but I don't need to work to eat or have clothes to wear. I prefer that God provides for them regardless of what I do or don't do. It's faith that laughs at unemployment or economic crisis and shoves it off with, "So what?" It's faith that is ready to do the needed work but trusts so little in it. All the trust is in God, 100 percent.

I know. It's a very silly thing to prescribe to a world too desperate for money, too distressed over losing jobs or suicidal about failing. It's plain stupid to a world so trustful of material values. And it's wrong interpretation to a church too steeped in worldly systems and standards. They'll dismiss you as being "out of context." It's a favorite scapegoat. 

It's the smallest seed the world ignores and mocks but which God designed to be the only seed to grow tallest in the garden. Like the Stone the builders rejected but which really was the cornerstone. 

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “’The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Birds don't worry about things that startle us. They just enjoy each day, raise a family and have enough to eat. I haven't heard of birds losing jobs, getting low pays, affected by oil price hikes, inflation, needing maintenance meds, regular checkups or being hospitalized, or pursuing a diploma, title or degree to land on a good job. And yet, they've been here for thousands of years without suffering the problems that have been haunting man ever since. God feeds them. And Jesus says, learn from them. Have we? Or do we prefer worrying with the world?

I know it's a difficult concept. I myself struggle with it, but it's something we can't just put aside because we think it's impractical. It's God's truth, no less. And if he says it, it will work. We just have to trust it 101 percent, like how birds trust God's provisions to come daily because these provisions have no choice but to come to us. They've been commanded.

Street Bums?

Does God encourage us to be street bums then? Jesus was unemployed all his life and it didn't bother him one bit. He walked his talk about bird confidence. Though son of a carpenter, there's no indication in the bible he did carpentry works. As a young adult, he simply roamed around remote places with his disciples (also jobless) and taught freely those who followed him (free of charge). 

Yup, he looked jobless in people's eyes, but he was fully employed in the Kingdom. And he never begged or asked for solicitations or donations. He followed the Kingdom system. His women-followers supported him financially. I also like to imagine Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and Zacchaeus joining in the support. It's one way the Father feeds his servants he spares from sowing, reaping and storing.

So, it's not about all of us becoming "street bums" (or unemployed in secular work). Some are called to fulltime ministry and others to financially support it. You should be either of the two. But the Kingdom principle remains the same. In fulltime ministry or secular work, God wants all of us to have faith that manifests bird confidence. And from the 6th chapter of Matthew, bird confidence looks like this:

1. It's not showy. Things are done in private, exclusively for God's eyes. If Jesus had a Facebook, he would not post things about his ministry, prayer meetings, worship service, etc. He didn't need to showoff because he was sure the Father saw everything. That's bird confidence. The Father, who sees in private, will reward things done in secret.
2. It stores up no treasure except in heaven. It belittles treasures on earth and the money-value system (no money, no value) of the world. Like birds, believers with bird confidence don't mind whether they or others are making money or not, employed or otherwise, although they understand that prioritizing God and his Kingdom brings complete provisions from God. So, there's really no such thing as having no money.
3. Business or employment is good but they're NOT the priority in this life or the measure of success or usefulness.
4. They know that being moneyless is not cause for worry or desperation.
5. Like birds that expect to be fed, they're sure God will provide.

Pursuit of Money 

For most people (including believers), the pursuit of money is life. It makes them wake up early in the morning to beat the traffic and avoid getting late for work. They pursue education for themselves and their children primarily to make more money. Everything is for making money. Even going to church each Sunday is for securing business profits or job security. They do it (and give their tithes) so God would not punish them financially. Some do it to get more money from God.

Prioritizing money works against bird confidence. So, check yourself. If your business or job (or money concerns) devours most of your time and energy and molds your character and mindset, you're missing the whole point, even if you're active in church. A lot of church ministries are run by money, not by God. Their confidence is on their tithers or "givers" and church income. But once the givers and the church income are taken from them, they start worrying and would try anything that works and gives them money. Their mindsets differ from God's.

When famine or summer dryness strikes, birds still do not sow or reap or store in barns. They won't resort to anything outside the Father's provisions. The world may give you a lot and offer practical systems that really work (even make you rich and mega), but God's provision is still different and you remain lacking and destitute despite the world's abundance if you miss out on it.

My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. [John 14]

There are others who refuse to give tithes or offering or share any financial support, although they attend church religiously, say Amen to all the teachings and appear more spiritual than everybody else. They do not support because they're the worse money pursuers. The more they hoard, the more they feel a mysterious lack spiritually.

Whoever loves money never has enough;

whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless. [Ecclesiastes 5]

Birds are never materialistic. They cannot appreciate the value of money or its possession but rejoices in the freedom that God gives. They sing gleefully in makeshift nests but cry in man's elaborate cages. People who miss Jesus' lessons on birds embrace the trap in toiling for a livelihood and remain in its enslavement. According to Jesus:

Pagans run after all these things...

The NLT says it better:

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers...

Confident with Nothing

Bird confidence is devoted to watching God do and provide everything and flowing freely in the current. He may give you something to work on---something to sow, reap or store in barns---or else keep you free from work to prepare you for a certain task. That's still "work." In the Kingdom, you're still "gainfully employed" even if people see you are jobless. In the meantime, you enjoy Him, not concerned or worried about sowing, reaping or storing. Not getting insecure or degraded by whatever situation you're in. 

Yup, you need to pay bills and spend for a lot of basic needs. You may be shaken by financial lack now and then, missing deadlines, cutoffs and due dates, which is mind rattling. And people around will start looking down on you because you look bankrupt. It happens even in church (or especially in church). You're a nobody if you don't have money. They looked down on Jesus for the same reasons. Anything run by worldly systems worships money.

But here's the thing. You're confident though you have nothing. And that's when you possess everything. That's bird-confidence power.

...sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. [2 Corinthians 6]

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