“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! ”
Luke 12:24

This is not a call to careless irresponsibility but rather a reminder to consider how the Father blesses due diligence and the appropriate use of appointed means. When I protest and complain against my present condition or reflectively grumble over my past experience of perceived injustice as an end or the means to an end, or as the agent of change to move men or the Almighty to advance my current condition then I have failed to be as the ravens who hunt from dawn to dusk for that appointed meal promised them by the Father. The ravens neither sit upon the nest in the midst of squawks and complaints nor take to the air with streaming tail banners in demonstration of protest of current lack of provision or another’s prosperity. The ravens responsibly hunt. They pursue. They act with prudent skill toward and accomplished ends through good and prescribed means. And they do not cease until bread is in beak and the babes are fed.

And the Father opens his hand, and He feeds them; and in due time He closes His hand, takes away their spirit, and they perish.

And as for us… He feeds us by promise of His provision, and some day soon He closes His hand on that Appointed Day and He takes away our spirit back unto Himself as we fly to judgment as it is so “appointed to every man but once to die.”

Jesus here has argued in metaphor from the lesser to the greater. Have we heard or do we protest too much that the red bird or the black bird or the robin or the swallow make out better than we? Our times are in His hands indifferent to the decisions and directives of men. “His lines have fallen to us in pleasant places.” My history is a providential wonder of the wisdom of the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of my life regardless of my sin and rebellion by the unfolding of eternal decrees. We are today what we are and where we are by the grace of God as that grace works within us. I’m not what I am because of my past… that may have influences in life experiences, but grace is sufficient TODAY for my submission and obedience TODAY.

God feeds us. But He feeds us and the world by “the vocation of the milkmaid.” Luther

God please feed us mostly and only importantly that manna from heaven… that Bread of life that gave His life for the world!

God help me to be as the busy raven and to shut my mouth of complains and grumbles as I rather fly to and fro with squawks of the glory of my Father who feeds me and who wisely governs me in both my physical and spiritual man!

Yes, Lord. May it be so and Amen!