About three weeks ago I discovered a bird’s nest at the top of a column on our front porch. We have put up barriers to keep the birds from nesting there, but the barrier did not work this time. The nest was constructed before I discovered it, and I didn’t have the heart to tear it down.
We have watched each day at the activity of the swallows that have invaded our porch, and I have had to carefully go out to water plants in the evening. It wasn’t too much of a problem for the first few days, but now I have to watch carefully or be attacked by a flock of these beautiful little birds. They can fly about 31 miles an hour, and you can imagine how that feels with eight or ten of these birds whizzing by you, one right after the other.
One day last week, I watched from our window as several birds flew in and around the column. It must have been the “birthday” of the babies. Soon after, mother and father were diligently taking turns feeding their little ones.
This whole bird experience made me think of God’s command to the Jews. In Deuteronomy, 6 it is clear the commandments, statutes, and judgments were given for the people to obey. They were to obey ALL of them; but not only were they to obey them, their sons and son’s sons were to obey them “all the days of their life” so their lives would be prolonged. In obeying these commandments, they would increase in the land which God had promised them.
In verses 7-10, the people are told how to pass these commandments on. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” In other words, the teaching of God’s Word was to be constant.
The constant feeding and care of baby birds is the kind of diligent feeding of our Lord’s commandments to our own children that God wants. Because the devil is diligently bombarding us and our children with lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life (First John 2:16), we had better be diligent in our teaching of the gospel because it is “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16).
The first century church showed this kind of diligent teaching. Acts 5:42 says that they did not stop teaching that Christ is Jesus. Our world today needs to know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and salvation comes only through obedience to His Word.
As the swallows diligently feed and care for their newborn and for one another, may we feed and care for our children by teaching them God’s commandments.
Sandra Oliver