“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV)

It was there, lying upside down on the ground. I stopped to check it out. It was a bird’s nest.

Earlier in the summer, my daughter had pointed it out to me. High up in the pine, it was home to a robin and her fledglings.

Now that fall had arrived and the babies had all flown away, the nest had been abandoned, and the last major wind storm had blown it to the ground.

I picked the nest up to examine it. The nest was tightly woven with twigs and grasses and then plastered with a smooth layer of hardened mud on the inside where the eggs would be laid and eventually hatched, making a perfect home for raising and launching baby robins into the world at large.

Later, I discovered that it weighed in at 9.4 ounces, over half a pound. The average weight of a female robin is only 2.7 ounces, with the males weighing 2.5-3.3 ounces. How amazing it is that such tiny, frail creatures could not only build something so much larger than themselves but also something so intricate, detailed, and strong, using only their beaks and feet!

How amazing it is, that we, as God’s people, tiny and frail, vulnerable and mortal — really nothing more than dust — are equipped, through our relationship with Jesus Christ, with everything that we need to do His will here on earth: His perfect, intricate, and detailed will; a will that is holy, good, righteous, just, patient, kind, loving, wise, and gentle, even in the most difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible of situations. Yet, as mind-boggling as this seems, according to today’s Scripture, it is true.

Just as the Lord Himself equipped those tiny robins to build a nest that far outweighed them and was an astounding work of construction, durability, and usefulness, so, too, are we equipped by God to do astounding, durable, and useful works for His kingdom, here on this earth.

So today, let us not shirk from anything that God may be calling us to do because we feel that we can’t possibly do it. For according to His Word, we can do it.

Prayer: Father God, thank You that You have equipped us through Christ, with everything good for doing Your will, now and forevermore. Bless us with the strength and faith to trust in this truth, that Your will may be done on earth through us. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright © 2021, by Lynne Phipps <lynnephippsatlin@gmail.com>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Atlin, British Columbia, Canada

Reprinted from PresbyCan with author’s permission