265th Meditation
“Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?” (Mt 6:26).
We continue today with the theme of the loving Providence of our heavenly Father. He wants us to live truly carefree. Is it not easy to understand this, considering that we are His children? Is it not natural that He, being our loving Father, should take care to provide us with all that we need for our temporal and eternal good? Even we humans take care of those entrusted to our care.
Therefore, if we do not live in the holy unconcern which the Father offers us, the problem must be on our part.
When I write the meditations early in the morning, I can observe a little bird coming near my window in search of food. In fact, it finds it. I hear it chirping and see its bustle, as it nimbly changes places and continues its flight. The little bird gets everything it needs from God! It does nothing on its own; it is simply there and God, in His tenderness, provides it with nourishment. I am always happy about this little bird… Our Father created it, knows it and loves it, and therefore also takes care of it.
It is really that simple, and it should be even easier for us to understand that our Father surrounds human beings with His love, whom He even created in His own image (Gen 1,27). It is we who are still fearfully worried about our future… The Lord invites us to put aside this tense worry, to understand His love and to trust in Him.
In the Message to Mother Eugenia Ravasio, in context with the “fountain” and the “Ocean” of charity, the Father addresses these words to us, which are truly an invitation that can only flow from His paternal Heart:
“The spring is the symbol of My knowledge; the ocean is that of My charity and of your trust. When you wish to drink from this spring, study Me in order to know Me and, when you know Me, dive into the ocean of My charity, trusting in Me with a confidence so deep as to transform yourselves: this I shall be unable to resist. I shall then forgive your errors and lavish the greatest favours upon you”.
It is about our trust, which the Father wants to earn. He cannot and will not resist this trust, because it opens the way for Him to fill us with His love. This is what the little bird at my window is teaching me. If the Father takes care of him, He will also think of me!