Daily Meditation for January 20, 2023

As the doldrums of winter continue, God provides flashes of entertainment through the antics of our feathered friends: birds which stay the winter, braving the adverse weather conditions.   There’s the nuthatch that descends the tree trunk headfirst, a chickadee that lands on the feeder to take a single seed, then alights on a branch to eat it. Woodpeckers and other birds find nourishment from the suet provided for them. In the midst of this color, the bright red cardinal alights on the feeder looking for its share. Checking on the ground below, one finds a flock of juncos whose feeding habits find them being satisfied with the morsels below the feeder. Watching and enjoying these feathered friends, one may pray Psalm 91:4 which speaks of God as a protecting bird. We read: “God will cover you with sheltering feathers, and under God’s wings you will find refuge.”

By Philip Zimmer, OSB