Have you ever seen a nest full of baby birds in the Spring? If you have, you’ve most likely noticed that baby birds spend the majority of their first few days after hatching with their mouths open wide, begging their parents to fill it with some good worm or bug. Have you ever thought: “Boy, that baby bird has a big mouth?” Well, you are correct! When baby birds are hatched, they are born with an extra wide and brightly colored gape. The gape is the area of beak where the top and bottom of the bill meet at the back of the throat. Brightly colored gapes attract the attention of parents and the extra wide opening makes it even easier for parent birds to feed the hatchlings all the nutrition they need to grow. As birds grow older, this gape dulls in color allowing mature birds to catch insects without their brightly colored gapes scaring the insects away. The gape also grows narrower as the birds mature, giving the birds the ability to nab unsuspecting insects for dinner which would be hard with that big ole’ mouth hatchlings have. Isn’t God’s creation amazing?
Recently, I was reading Psalm 81 and came across verse 10 which reads: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. Instantly, I had this image in my head of a baby bird. A baby bird—hungry for dinner—mouth wide open as can be, begging its parents for one more bite. Can you see it?
Baby birds are helpless—they depend entirely on their parents. They have no feathers. They cannot fly. They cannot catch their own dinner. They can’t even keep themselves warm—all they can do is sit in their nests and cry out to their parents for care—with their mouths open wide. They wait in great anticipation for that moment when their parents will soon reappear with a juicy bug to satisfy their hunger and a body to warm their soul. They trust that their parents will provide for all their needs. This is what God is calling us to do in this verse. He wants us to sit in our “nests” with our mouths open wide—waiting with great anticipation and trust for Him to answer. We can trust that He has and He will provide everything we need. We can sit in great anticipation of what is to come. He will provide. 2 Peter 1:3 reads: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
Baby birds let their parents know they are hungry by squawking – and if you’ve ever been around a nest, you know that they can be loud! Squawking is how baby birds communicate. But, to squawk baby birds must close their mouths. Their parents can’t feed them while they are squawking. To be fed, they must throw their heads back, open their mouths as wide as they can and wait. The same is true for us with God. He definitely calls on us to pray—to talk and cry out to Him. It’s even okay to “squawk” sometimes. Though, in order for Him to answer we must be like these baby birds depending on their parents . . . we must sit back, open our mouths and wait to be filled. And in verses like this one, God promises He will fill us.
In Psalm 81, God looks back on the history of Israel. They were His chosen people and God had much He wanted to do through them and for them, but their lack of faith and obedience —their closed mouths so to speak– kept that from happening. The Israelites liked to squawk and grumble. They wanted more water, more food. They wanted to be at the Promised Land now. They were so busy squawking, they didn’t see all the ways God was providing for them on their trek across the wilderness. All God was asking of them was to trust Him—to sit with their mouths open wide, receiving the goodness He was so willing to bring to them if they would just receive it. We must not be like the Israelites and grumble and squawk our way across the wilderness without stopping to open our mouths to receive what God is offering. God has already shown us His great love by sending His son to free us from our own sin. Romans 8:32 reminds us: “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?“ If God loved us so much to send His Son to save us, how can we not trust Him for all that is to come? We must trust His love, anticipate His good, and sit with our mouths open wide- waiting on Him to fill us. And fill us He will—if we just obey Him.
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13
Friend, are you sitting there like a baby bird with your mouth agape, waiting on God to fill you? Trust His goodness, anticipate what is to come, and obey His commands . . . and fill you He will.
April Raver, Lakeview Wesleyan Church Member