Bird in a Mud Puddle

Yesterday morning I was walking my dog.  She is totally deaf and has epilepsy, so, when she stiffened, I thought she might be having a seizure.  Then I saw that she was in a "What is that???!!!!" stance.  In front of us was a sparrow splashing and thrashing about in a puddle of muddy water.  The bird wasn't crazy, injured, or frightened.  It was taking a bath.

Birds take water and/or dust baths to clean themselves and to discourage the presence of itchy mites and fleas on their bodies.

Sparrows taking a dirt bath

Wild blue tits taking a water bath

This little poem is quoted from http://blogs.cbn.com/soultransformation/archive/2010/05/28/why-the-birds-dont-worry.aspx

“Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
‘I should really like to know,  Why these anxious human beings,
Rush about and worry so.’
 
Said the Sparrow to the Robin:
‘Friend, I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me’” 
(Elizabeth Cheney, Streams in the Desert) 

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."  Matthew 6: 25-34.

We live in a world full of tornadoes, earthquakes, civil wars, terrorism, hatred, and strife.  Many of us walk around with an underlying state of stress,  We might profit by actually listening to Jesus and looking at the birds.