Have your ever listened to someone talking, but you really didn’t hear them? Maybe your mind was on something else. Have you ever listened to someone, you were hearing them, but you just didn’t get what they were saying? It just didn’t make sense to you. Well, that is where our Bird of the Bible this week gets its food.
Among rocks – Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)
I can see you now trying to find these “Wayside Sower Birds” in your latest, up to date, birding handbook. No, these birds are mentioned in the Bible, in the Parable of the Sower. These birds are not named specifically, so it could be any kind of bird that likes to eat along the wayside of a planted field. Let’s look at what is being said about them.
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. (Matthew 13:3-4 NKJV)
Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. (Mark 4:3-4 NKJV)
A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. (Luke 8:5 NKJV)
The parable goes on and tells of the seed landing on rocks, in thorn bushes and also on good ground. The Lord later explained it to His disciples as:
Therefore hear the parable of the sower: (19) When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. (20) But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; (21) yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. (22) Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. (23) But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:18-23 NKJV)
Good ground – American Yellow Warbler
(Dendroica aestiva) by J Fenton
May we all receive the seed (Word of God) on good ground and not be deaf to the truth of God, letting what you hear fall by the wayside.
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