As a young girl, I remember caring for animals a lot. We grew up on a farm with all kinds of animals. Some were purchased, some given, and some we even found outside and hid from my parents in our basement until we couldn’t hide them anymore. Sorry, Mom.
One day, I remember finding a small bird that was injured and appeared sick. There was no way that I could leave it there to die, so I took it in and cared for it the best way I could. I truly believed I could nurse it back to health, but the sun started to go down, and the bird was only getting more still and unresponsive. Sitting on our kitchen counter, holding the small, helpless bird in my hands, it took its last breath. I was heartbroken.
I do not remember what happened after that except that my dad took me, crying and confused, over to the kitchen window and told me to look at all the birds flying around with such joy. He began to tell me that God cared for that sweet little bird whom I once held but also cared for me. He talked about everything Matthew 6:25-34 talks about:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; 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? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
That moment and verse have stuck with me ever since then. My dad may have thought I was being dramatic or wasting my time trying to save that poor bird, but instead of dismissing me, he got down on my level and comforted me even in my grief over an animal.
Plenty of times, I have felt that I was alone or people and even God didn’t care about me, but I am proven wrong every time. God knows me and cares for me more than I can even understand. Psalm 139 says that God knows what we think, say, and do, yet is always there. There is nothing we can do, nowhere we can go that he isn’t with us.
God doesn’t ignore me; he pursues me. God doesn’t forget about me; he cares for me. God doesn’t look down on me; he kneels beside me. God doesn’t leave me there to die; he holds me. God is with me. God sees me.
Raina Songer
Raina is a member of our Christ’s Church family and is married to Chip, Creative Director and Worship Minister at Christ’s Church. She loves spending time with her family and making things with her hands – cooking, drawing, sewing, repurposing, etc. Raina is pictured here with Chip and their three children, Theodore, Edison, and Winifred.
