John Dickson: Let’s press pause. I’ve got a 5-minute Jesus for you. Actually, I’ve got something much better. My undeceptions colleague Dr Laurel Moffett recently had a beautiful reflection on birds for her show, Small Wonders. I couldn’t match it if I tried. So, with her permission – let’s press pause, Laurel Moffatt has a 5-minute Jesus for you.
A recent article in the online magazine Bloom and Birds suggests how a bird watcher can, and I quote, “go beyond binoculars and field guides and ramp up their game with the coolest new bird-watching gear and birding supplies.” Such as smart touch gloves for those cold days when you still need to use your phone. A harness for your camera or binoculars. A smart bird feeder so you can record birds as they eat. A portable mosquito repeller, or a smartphone telephoto lens. You could spend a lot of money and time acquiring the best tools for bird watching without ever laying eyes on a single bird.
Isn’t the point of bird watching, birds?
More often than not, it seems the topic of bird watching is actually an invitation to other subjects relevant to the bird watcher. Such as well-being, attention, or mental health. It can take you places.
Some bird watchers travel long distances to see species of birds found only in far off places. And counterpoint to this, the slow birding movement is all about looking for birds in your own neighbourhood or yard. Regardless of the locale and irrespective of the presence or lack of accessories, researchers have found that those who watch birds have improved mental health, restored attention spans, less anxiety, and a greater sense of well being than they did before taking up the activity.
There was a definite uptick in bird watching during the pandemic. Some bird enthusiasts thought that the rise in bird watching during the pandemic would be a blip. But the numbers don’t seem to be dropping that quickly.
And it makes sense. Bird watching is surprisingly accessible. Birds are everywhere in every habitat. They are equitable creatures available to all. Whether you live in the country or the city, in a high rise apartment, or on some remote acreage, you don’t need any special gear to watch or listen to a bird. You don’t need expensive gloves or feeders or smartphones.
But you do need one thing. You need something much harder to come by, something more precious and costly. Time. And the willingness to sit and wait. And watch. And listen.
If you’re tempted to start watching birds, you’ll find yourself in good company. There are some pretty famous bird watchers. President Jimmy Carter, the novelist Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen. Paul McCartney. The theologian John Stott was a bird watcher. Even Jesus encouraged a bit of bird watching. In the most famous sermon ever given, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (which is a fancy way of saying a talk he gave outside one day on the side of the hill), he encourages his listeners to go bird watching. He says this:
Don’t worry about your life. What you’ll eat or drink or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they don’t sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:25-27)
Don’t worry. Don’t be anxious. When you’re in the throes of worry, this can feel like an impossible task. Jesus tells us to take our eyes off of ourselves, and the worries that can consume us, and instead do something very very simple. Look at a bird. Any bird, the one right in front of you is just fine.
Birds are always hungry. In order to stay light enough to fly. A bird stays very close to starvation. And yet it doesn’t worry. It eats. It flies. It sings.
Researchers have found that listening to bird song and being in nature can alleviate stress and fatigue, and restore energy and attention. And these are all good things. While I have no doubt that Jesus would have known that it’s good for us to be outside, to be in the world we were made to be in, there’s more to it when he mentions birds.
He wants more for us than a new hobby, or a leg up on our mental health, or longer attention span, as good as all of these things are. He’s not advocating a new form of therapy or way of getting by. He’s encouraging a whole new way of seeing. A whole new way of being in the world.
Jesus mentions birds in the context of the one who created them and supports their life providing everything they need for living. God. Or, as he calls him, your Heavenly Father. In that phrase, Jesus invites his listener to the best place to see things as they are, the best vantage point. He invites the listener, now bird watcher, to see the birds and themselves not merely in relation to one another, but in relation to God, the creator of birds. The feeder of birds. The carer of birds. And he invites us to use a personal pronoun and call God our own.
Our Heavenly Father.
Our Feeder.
Our Carer.
Our Creator.
By Laurel Moffatt
Saving Nature
Want to hear the rest of the episode?
Check out episode 100: “Saving Nature”
