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Reflection on Ornithological Print
In today’s reading Jesus is using the sparrows to make the point to His apostles why they didn’t need to fear anything. So, why use sparrows to illustrate the point? Sparrows in Jesus’ time were used as food because they were a threat to the crops. They were largely viewed as pests. Jesus makes the point that you could buy two sparrows for a penny, so they were the cheapest kind of meat around. But yet ‘not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father knowing’, which means that what seems valueless and cheap to humans, is important to God. If God takes notice of the smallest and most insignificant birds, how much more will He take notice of the plight of all of us humans who want to serve him…
Today’s illustration is a print depicting the house sparrow by Magnus von Wright (1805 - 1868), who started out his career in the 1820’s as a taxidermist. Though a skilful taxidermist, his reputation is mainly as a zoological illustrator, as seen in today’s print. The sparrow is a familiar little bird to all of us, and is a close neighbour in our urban and country settings. It is a sociable bird and favours areas of human habitation for nesting… a bird Jesus uses to make the point that God is looking after us and noticing all we do for Him…
by Patrick van der Vorst
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