What if in our walk with God, we aimed to be like newly hatched robins: eyes shut, mouths wide open, crying for God’s blessing to be dropped into our mouths to fill us with goodness? 

God has given us the ability to care for ourselves, but within that God-given initiative, God pleads with us to be like baby birds: “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10). God has more to give us.

We can choose to ignore God’s offer, and he will respect our choice. Listen to how he describes what happened in his relationship with his Old Testament people: “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices” (Psalm 81:11,12).

A baby robin doesn’t refuse food that it needs to survive, but we refuse God’s gifts. We can’t survive without God’s sustenance any more than a bird can survive without the mushy meal from its parent. Our souls and bodies are incomplete and malnourished and starving without everything that God has to offer us. He has everything we need for body and life.

It’s a humbling position for us to be in, but like a tiny robin, we are cradled in a nest woven for us with love. It’s our reality whether we want to accept it or not. What would happen if we kept that image of a baby bird in mind? What would happen if we opened our mouths wide so that God could fill them?