Feeding on the Bread of Life

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

John 6:35

My wife, Carol, has me hooked on watching the bird feeder. We've set up a couple of feeders in our back yard so we can watch from our back porch. It is very calming to watch the birds in the morning and evening. We get cardinals, bluejays, red-winged blackbirds, doves, titmice (the plural of titmouse, according to Webster), chickadees, woodpeckers, robins, sparrows, rufous-sided towhees. We're still waiting for our bluebirds to come back this year.

We even get squirrels coming to the feeder. We've tried to move the feeder away from the tree and fence, and I've even trimmed back the tree branches so they can't jump onto the feeder. We've tried to grease the pole with coconut oil. The squirrels still get to the food. They are determined and persistent!

Every once in a while I will see different kinds of birds on the feeder at the same time. I like it when they do that, because it reminds me that it's possible to coexist among differences. The birds seem to get along much better when they are eating food off of the ground, than when they are sharing space on the feeder.

Look carefully and you will see the
cardinal at the left, along
with the bluejay

Once I even saw the bluejay and the cardinal both eating together on the ground. Red and Blue, coming together to the same table. Imagine that. #notpolitical #actuallyitwaspolitical

I get a couple of kingdom lessons from the bird feeder.

First, everyone who comes to the feeder is hungry; and everyone who comes to the feeder finds food.

Everyone: blackbirds, bluejays, cardinals, sparrows, robins, towhees, doves—you name it; at the feeder they find what they are seeking. Even the squirrels.

In like manner, humans by our very nature have a hunger and thirst within us. Jesus is the Bread of Life. Everyone who comes to him will find satisfaction for their hunger and thirst (I still don't get how bread satisfies thirst, but Jesus said it, so it must be true).

Everyone: Red and yellow, black and white; rich and poor, educated and illiterate. You name it. Whoever comes to Jesus will find what their soul longs for. Everyone who comes to Christ will find satisfaction.

Second, at the feeder I see a coming together. It's not perfect, because not everyone wants to be together. But I do see them sharing the same food, and the same space.

That sparks within me an appreciation for the unity we experience in Christ's church. We are one body. In Christ, table is big enough for all of us, even with our differences. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul makes this observation: 

“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread what we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)

The church I serve will celebrate the Lord's Supper this week. We also call it communion, for it reminds us not only that Christ reconciles us with God, but also with one another.

If the bird feeder is a big-enough table for all the birds that gather—and the persistent squirrels, as well—then the table that Christ prepares for us is more than big enough for all of us who gather in his name.