All morning I hear the menagerie's caws and chirps - blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, white-winged dove, sparrows, woodpeckers, indigo and painted buntings, crows, and hawks.
They eat and drink and fight for space at our backyard feeders or the bird bath ledge, while gray squirrels squabble over the seed that falls to the ground and predators call out threats from the tall pines in the pasture.
Above it all, it's the crimson male cardinal that captures my attention - the way he cares for his mistress. How he feeds, watches, chases after and calls to his less attractive bride. She is clearly the apple of his eye.
When Jesus taught His disciples about God, he used what they already knew - storms and fig trees, wheat and fish, and sparrows and flowers.
And I believe that He teaches me that way, too.
That in the beautiful cardinal's attention to his feathered bride, I am reminded what I already know - that Jesus loves, feeds, watches, chases after, calls to and cares for me.
{Photos - spring on Pollywog Creek}
