Why Jesus Tells Worried People to Go Bird Watching

Have you ever noticed how much energy worry quietly takes? The bills, the diagnosis, the kids, the job that might not be there next month. It hums away in the background of ordinary life, and most of us have just learned to live with the noise.

So it's a strange thing to hear Jesus tell worried people to go and watch birds. This week at Crowd, Sharon opened with a photo of a pantomime horse she'd made out of scrap material as a kid. She's always been a maker and a grower, someone with more hobbies than hours in the day. But there are two hobbies Jesus recommends that never made her list. Bird watching, and flowers. Not as pastimes exactly, but as a way of seeing. And the question is, why?

The Worry We've Learned to Live With

This teaching comes from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus lays out what life looks like when we live rightly with God and one another. It's almost a manifesto for life. If you were in charge of your workplace or your whole country, what kind of culture would you build? How would you want people to treat each other? This is Jesus answering that.

Tucked inside it are four short sections about money and possessions, and this is the fourth. Here's where it lands:

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to Him than they are? (Matthew 6:25–26, NLT)

The word translated worry here is the Greek merimnao. It shows up nineteen times in the New Testament, and it can be a healthy concern for the right things or an unhealthy fixation on the wrong ones. Scripture tells us not to be consumed by food and clothes, and in the same breath (1 Corinthians 12:25) tells us to be deeply concerned for one another. The issue was never caring. It's where the caring points.

Look at the Birds, Look at the Flowers

So why does Jesus point us at birds and wildflowers? Because when we actually look, we start to see something of God's character.

We see a God who is generous and cares for what He's made. Sharon put it simply from her own garden. If she did nothing, within a few years it would become a small woodland. She's forever pulling up sycamore and hazel saplings to stop them taking over. There's such an abundance of seed that things grow everywhere, often where she never planted them, and all of it becomes food and shelter for the birds.

Then there are the flowers. God could have made them purely functional. Instead He put beauty and detail and care into something that's here today and gone tomorrow. When her kids were small, Sharon used to stop them on walks to look at the pretty flowers. Now they say it back to her, probably to humour her. But the point holds. The God who lavishes that much attention on a wildflower is not a God who's lost interest in you.

This is the antidote to worry. Not "try harder to feel calm", but a shift in where we're looking. From the things we're anxious about, to the One who is actually the source of what we need.

Because sometimes our circumstances make us quietly wonder whether God cares at all. Or whether, if He does, He's powerful enough to do anything about it. Jesus offers concrete evidence in the opposite direction. Whatever the reason for our circumstances, it's not that God doesn't care.

Seeking First a Kingdom That Actually Provides

Jesus doesn't stop at "don't worry". He gives us somewhere else to put our attention.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33, NLT)

A kingdom is simply a place where a king rules. We have a king in the UK, but it's not a great picture of this, because here the king reigns without really ruling. In God's kingdom He does both. Seeking it means trusting His way in every area of life, not picking the bits we like. And living righteously just means living right with God and right with people.

The catch is that the world is shouting something very different, and it's worth naming the contrast Sharon drew out:

• The world says, buy more so you'll feel secure. God says that feeling won't last, because things get lost. Look to your Father instead.
• The world says, be someone, get more followers, climb higher. God says you're already someone. You don't need the ladder to prove your worth, but you can use where you are to serve others.
• The world says, look after number one, hold on to what you have. (Anyone remember the great toilet roll panic of 2020?) God says be generous, because what you have isn't only for you.

What This Looks Like on a Tuesday

This isn't theory. Sharon gave two examples from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Her friend Sue has had years where money was painfully tight, watching every penny and still coming up short. At a self-service checkout one day, surrounded by yellow-sticker reductions, she turned to a stranger and said, "This is such a blessing, God's really provided, I've got so much more for my money." The woman replied that she was a Christian too, and that she was going to pay for Sue's shopping. Two strangers hugging by the tills. Another time, facing the cost of a family funeral on the Isle of Wight, a man who'd once lodged with them briefly, who knew nothing of their situation, sent £100. He'd simply felt prompted to. As Sue says, it's funny how many coincidences happen when you pray.

At the other end sits Mark Mitchell, who runs a thriving car business. Plenty of companies in his world chase the bottom line, work people into the ground, and watch staff churn out the door. Mark runs his differently. The business closes on Sundays, one of the busiest days for car viewings, so his people can rest at the same time as their families. A few years ago they walked away from a major contract because it would have forced Sunday trading. From a purely financial view, that makes no sense. For Mark it was about putting God first and trusting Him to provide. He's swapped the word "employees" for "colleagues", because he sees people as made in God's image and treats them that way. Last year, out of 106 staff, two part-timers left, against an industry average closer to 30 to 40 per cent. There's a verse he leans on from 1 Samuel: those who honour me, I will honour.

Conversation Street

What keeps you trusting God when life is hard?

The honest answer from the hosts was stories. Dan talked about leaving a secure apprenticeship at Ford at twenty to go to university, with people lining up to tell him he was either brave or mad. He had a peace about it, partly because he'd watched his parents live that way first. Ade described knowing for years that Ireland wasn't home, praying about it, and then a fully funded scholarship opening the door to North Wales, where the rest of his life took shape. Sharon shared the season when she gave up work to be a full-time mum, the lodgers moved out, and Matt's company was being taken over, so nearly all their income looked set to vanish at once. In the middle of it there was, oddly, a sense of excitement. Then an anonymous gift arrived out of the blue and freed Matt to start his own company. None of them pretended it was easy. As Sharon put it, sometimes following Jesus actually makes life harder, even while it makes you more at peace inside.

Why stay with God when He could heal but hasn't?

Ade carries this one personally. His wife Sonya has severe ME, and he's watched her waste away over years while the healing he's begged for hasn't come. He's stopped pretending he has an answer to why. What he offered instead was James 1:2, consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, alongside complete honesty that he doesn't enjoy trials one bit. He keeps going for two reasons. Faith makes him a better, more peaceful person to be around right now, whatever turns out to be true. And he's convinced there's something far better and eternal on the other side of all this, next to which the present pain is a blink. Then the detail that stops you. In the hardest season of his life, Ade took up bird watching. There's an accessible RSPB reserve near home, and he found something genuinely calming about sitting in nature watching birds he can't even name. Jesus' top recommendation, taken up without him planning it.

One Day at a Time

There's no pretending here that faith makes life smooth. Jesus is completely straight with us.

So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:34, NLT)

He promises trouble, and then He gives us a way to carry it. Focus on today. Sharon found this during her cancer treatment last year. Instead of being swallowed by everything that might lie ahead, it became about what was in front of her that day. What had the doctor actually said? What was she struggling with right now? She'd talk to God about that, be honest about how she felt, and then choose to trust Him with what came next. And it freed her to actually enjoy the day she was in, to notice what she had to be thankful for, without tomorrow's maybes casting a shadow over it.

Something to Try This Week

1. Go on an awe walk. Head out with the specific intention of looking for things that make you stop. Birds, flowers, sky. There's real research showing it does our mental and physical health good, and Jesus got there first.
2. Name today's worry, then hand over today. Not the whole of next year. Just what's actually in front of you. Tell God how you feel about it honestly, and leave tomorrow with Him.
3. Do one generous thing. Pay for someone's coffee, give something away, meet a need you can see. Generosity is how God's provision tends to flow through people.
4. Ask a better question. Not "how do I get more so I'll feel secure?" but "who does God say I am?" Living out of that takes the pressure off needing to prove anything.
5. Notice where your eyes go. When the worry hum starts up, look up. The birds aren't panicking, and they're far less valuable to your Father than you are.

So here's the question for the week. If you really believed God was this generous, and this committed to you, what would actually change about the way you live? It would be good to hear how you put it into practice. That's the kind of thing Conversation Street is for, and you're always welcome to join us.