Many people have bird feeders and enjoy watching the different kinds of birds coming to their feeder. I’ve also heard of some who put out corn to watch squirrels and deer or turkeys!
I enjoy watching just about everything that God created, but I think my favorite is the Barn Swallow! I’ve been fascinated by them ever since I was a little boy. I love to watch them swooping, gliding and diving with the precision of a jet pilot. Did you know that each one of those birds can eat up to 850 mosquitoes or other insects every day? I’m amazed as I watch 40-50 of them swooping and diving-at high speeds above our yard around the barn and NEVER has there been a collision!
But it’s probably the instincts and patterns that God programmed into those little birds that is just so incredible to me. The Barn Swallows that are currently living and nesting in our barn will all disappear by Labor Day. To say they go south is an understatement…they REALLY go south! I’ve read that the ones from this part of Indiana fly all the way to Argentina for the winter (it’s spring and summer down there)! But this is home up here, this is where the mating, nesting etc. takes place.
As I’ve watched these amazing little “bug eaters” over the years, the arrival time in spring is fairly close to all of them arriving within one week. But leaving at the end of the summer seems to be set by when the second clutch of babies are out of the nest and flying-those adults and their young are the first to disappear. I’ve seen babies still in the nest during the last week of August and yet by the first few days of September the barn will be silent. They’ve all left!
Now, the really incredible part about these birds that only weigh several ounces is the birds that were born in our barn, will return to our barn next spring! That is probably the thing that points me straight to God every time I think about those birds! Just think about it, especially those little babies that were out of the nest for only a day or two before “taking off”! Seven to eight thousand miles, not knowing where the destination is AND the EXACT TIME EVERY YEAR to make the return trip…to our little barn (and hundreds of thousands of barns and sheds all over North America).
Some of this makes me think of when The Lord finally spoke to Job in Chapter 39 when he said: verse 1 “Do you know how mountain goats give birth?” verse 19 “Have you given the horse strength or clothed his neck with a quivering mane?” verse 26 “Do you know how a hawk soars and spreads her wings to the south?”
The Barn Swallow is just a “drop in the sea of creation” that God made for us. The more we learn about what He created for us, should leave us in worshipful awe of Him. “I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.” Psalm 9:1
Till Next Time…..
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