How much is that birdie in the window?

My husband and I love to watch birds. For being city dwellers, we actually get a great assortment of birds at our backyard feeders – cardinals, goldfinches, chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, blue jays… And then there are the sparrows and house finches, but we won’t go there right now…

I have a peanut feeder handing outside my second floor home office window. I watch the birds come and go all day. There is a definite pecking order. Low man on the totem pole is the cute little red-breasted nuthatch. (He is currently my favorite bird.) Next up is the white-breasted nuthatch. Then the downy woodpeckers who basically rule the roost – or at least the peanuts. I’ve learned a lot about the personality of each type of bird over the past several months since David installed the feeder. They constantly amuse me and offer me a diversion from whatever I am (supposed to be) working on at my desk.

We recently had to purchase more birdseed. We keep three goldfinch feeders and five other feeders so we go through a fair amount of seed every couple of months. As we were lugging (ok, as David was lugging) the huge bags and I was writing the huge check, I had this fleeting thought of “Is this worth it? How much is that birdie in the window costing us each day?”

But as soon as the thought came, it disappeared. The birdies in the window cost me very little compared to the joy they bring. The cost of the seed is nothing compared to the riches of being reminded moment by moment of the great Creator who designed these little charmers right down to their unique little cheeps and feather patterns. It is a great blessing to live in a culture where we can afford to not only feed ourselves, but bribe some of God’s creatures to hang out with us each day.