That's Just Fruity!
Perhaps it didn’t get the message. Migration was supposed to happen at least three months ago. And that would be late. Perhaps it was injured and could not make the journey-but that’s unlikely, this one is very healthy. Perhaps it couldn’t fly when it was time to migrate. But that makes no sense, this bird is an adult. Aren’t adults supposed to set the example? Is it simply a crazy bird, a fruity robin?
Want to know my best answer to the question why is there an American robin in the flowering crab tree in our front yard…in January, at 4:45 PM with the air temperature at minus 6 degrees Fahrenheit? Best answer: I don’t know. All the other speculation was just to get you thinking. And you are. A robin, in January? A robin-eating frozen fruit at 6 below zero?
Look at the photo.
Perhaps the best way to explain this phenomenon is to take our eyes off the bird and look at God. He made this Robin. He knows the reason for this out of seasonal visit.
There are two truths we can take from the presence of a Robin in January-when it’s the middle of a cold winter.
The first is from Job, a man who knew God well. He knew God knows all things. Job explained it this way:
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” Job 12:7-9
Job wasn’t referring to why an American Robin was in our front yard in the middle of January, but it still fits. Want the answer? “The hand of the Lord has done this.”
And this is the second. God’s ways are not our ways. We don’t know the mind of God. He controls all things-even a Robin in January.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
So, is it just one fruity Robin? In January there are no worms. No, its more. It’s about the awesome, sovereign God who knows all things. Even a robin on a below zero January day. His eye is on the robin, and he knows the number of hairs on your head and mine.