“‘I will give you one more chance to bow down and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sound of the musical instruments. But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. And then what god will be able to rescue you from my power?‘
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.'” Daniel 3:15-18
I just love this story don’t you? These three Jewish men unrelenting in their faith and traditions, standing toe to toe with the most powerful king of the time, telling him that they will NEVER serve his gods or worship the statue he has created. Talk about guts and moxy! They knew the meaning of a faithful God! They had seen how God had helped them honor Him with their bodies when they asked the guard to give them vegetables and water instead of the king’s food. They stayed up and prayed with Daniel when he volunteered to talk to God for king Nebuchadnezzar about his terrifying dream. They’d been through some stuff with this God whom they serve. They knew that when it comes to being in a pinch He always comes through.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been noticing lots of blue jays in our yard, and not a whole lot of anything else. I didn’t really think too much about it until this morning. It’s a gorgeous morning and I wanted to come out and enjoy it on my beautiful new deck that Sean made for me.
So I poured myself some coffee and grabbed my “office in a bag”
and headed out to the deck to read my Bible and write this post. A soft breeze blew through the back yard sweeping my hair back from my face as I prayed my Morning Prayer with thanksgiving for the peaceful morning beauty. Then from the other side of the house I could hear a mama blue jay cawing her little lungs out at something. I didn’t think too much about it until Mama Blue Jay came around to the back yard and started dive bombing our cat! I’ve been sitting here for the last hour listening to Mama Blue Jay cawing like mad at anything that even comes close to entering our yard, cats, other birds, even other blue jays! In fact right now she’s going ballistic on our cat Socks who is tormenting Mama Blue Jay by being on our roof! There is no way that anybody is going to get anywhere near her baby blue jay.
It wasn’t until I read the passage above that I realized why God had put it on my heart to come out here to write today. He is just like Mama Blue Jay and we’re His little baby birds. He protects us with such ferocity it would startle us if we could really see it happening. There’s a verse (somewhere in the Bible and I don’t have time to look it up this morning) that says that He protects us like the apple of His eye. Think about how your eye lids and lashes instinctively protect the apple, or pupil, of your eye; quickly and without even thinking they blink and protect. Just like Mama Blue Jay, dive bombing and cawing maliciously at any intruders to her territory, our Father God throws His hands protectively around us the moment trouble even looks like it’s coming near our nest. And before it ever reaches us in the nest we’ve been protected from troubles unseen and often unheard. But our Papa God has seen them and He heard them for us; protecting us from them before they ever got near enough to cause us any harm.
Thank You LORD for everything You do for us. The things we see and especially the things that we never see. Thank You for protecting us from the dangers all around us. Thank You for standing guard over us every second of every day. We are so grateful for You and Your activity in our lives. Thank You LORD. We love You! 😀
Tamar Knochel 