A lesson from the garden
by David Silvester
In our garden there’s a bird table with a variety of seed, nut and fat feeders that are regularly filled. These, and particularly the seed feeder, attract a variety of small birds, and when they’re feeding they drop bits to the ground. This attracts a flock of pigeons who scramble and even fight to get what falls.
As I watched, there was one pigeon who was so aggressive that it attacked and was driving the others away, not allowing them to feed on the crumbs that fall from the feeder. But, in the process of being so aggressive I noticed that it hardly ate a thing!
From this observation, the Lord planted in my mind the thought that God knows and sees that we all need feeding. But there are so many things that distract us, and interfere with what He has provided for us to enjoy and receive from His table of delights.
How often could it be said that we may be like that one pigeon, pre-occupied with what others around us might be seeking, that we miss what God is putting in our pathway for us to feed on and be enriched? Are we jealous of what others are getting from the Lord to the point that we’re distracted from what God has for us to enjoy?
Like the aggressive pigeon, the devil sets about diverting our mind from what God has provided for us in His Word, the things that will feed and nourish our spirit, and build us up to be spiritually healthy. God has provided such a variety of good things in His ‘feeder’ for us, His Word, and He wants us to feed on these things.
Prayer: Thank You, Father, that You have provided so much for my spiritual nourishment and development. Please help me to recognise the distractions that would prevent me learning from the things You have provided for me. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on You and not be distracted by what You’re doing with others I pray. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
David Silvester is married and has a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren. He trained as a production engineer. He then moved on to become a lecturer of engineering craft skills before being called of God in his early fifties to become a pastor of a Baptist church. He says that,"having previously experienced an amazing healing on a day others expected me to die, it came as no surprise that God directed me and my wife, Margaret, to become involved with Ellel Ministries."
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