American Robin, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine

“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus

I went out, after clearing the next to the last snow storm out of the drive before dawn, to catch the early light on the fresh snow at Roger’s Pond, and to see if the Eagles were in. I was so early the fruit tree by the picnic shelter was still in shadow, but the Robins were there, perched on the snowy branches, eating fruit at a astonishing rate. It is a classic winter Robin shot, with the snow capping the red fruit, and the open beak of the bird.

Okay, so seeing a picture like this, I have to think of the time Jesus once told his disciples that they should not worry themselves about what they would eat. “Look at the birds of the air;” he said, “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?” These days, Robins can live through a Maine winter. They get by, at least in part, on the ornamental fruit trees we have planted around our houses. If food gets scarce, they do what they did before we got here…they go as far south as needed to find food. And, to be honest, not all of them make it. But that does not diminish the truth of what Jesus was really saying. Jesus was not saying that we would not have to work for our living (birds certainly work for theirs), or that life would not sometimes be hard to the point of breaking…he was saying that we should not worry about it…that we should simply trust in God and get on with it. We should have confidence that we matter to God as least as much as the birds. We should live with confidence, firmly founded on faith in a loving God.

In my experience, this is one of the hardest lessons faith has to teach us. And I think of that, and am both challenged and encouraged, when I see a winter Robin, eating red fruit in a snowy Maine tree. That too, is part of the generous eye.

Happy Sunday!