The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - The Killdeer Bird and Jesus

Episode Date: May 21, 2021

Are you allowing God to protect you? Today, Jeff explains his encounter with a killdeer bird, and what it showed him about God’s unshakable faithfulness for us. Snippet from the Show “For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.” - Psalms 63:7 Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 220, The Kill Deer Bird and Jesus. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

Thanks for joining me again this week. As we talk about discipleship, the Word of God, we talk about what it means to be a disciple. And this week, I have an amazing analogy that just popped up right in front of Emily and myself just the other day. And I want to share it with you. Maybe you're going through some tough times right now. The news, my wife said this last week, she said, all you got to do is watch about 10 minutes of the news and you've had enough because there's not a lot of good news. you turn on the news, but I've got news for you, and that is that there is good news. And it's around us, if we just take a look at it. One of the things I have always been amazed at is, as Jesus as a

teacher, he used so many different tools to teach his disciples about himself and the kingdom of God and God's faithfulness, his covenant faithfulness, the meaning of suffering, what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God, on and on. And I see Jesus' classroom as very different than St. Mary's Parish, Room 107, Tuesday night at 7 o'clock. I really see his school as being a schoolroom that is wherever you go. And to be a disciple of Jesus, you have your eyes open to the different things that you're seeing, and there's a lesson in so many things. And today, I'm going to talk to you about the killed deer bird. Now, if you're in your car, don't go, you know, searching the web for the killed deer bird. I'm going to put a picture of the killed dare bird and a video that

illustrates what I'm talking about today, which is actually so beautiful. Hey, if you do want the notes for the show, and today I've got a number of scriptures I do want to share with you and some citations from the catechism, the Catholic Church, then all you got to do is type my name, text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and text it to 33777. That's 3377. And we'll get you the notes and you'll be on the list and you'll get them every single week. Well, you know, as you look at creation and you look up at the stars, for example, or you look at the fish in the sea or the birds in the air, the very things that God created in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, you see something that is fantastic.

You see a mirror or you see a lesson of God's personality, whether it be his mercy or faithfulness or long-suffering, whatever it might be, God seems to have given us sacramentals in nature, if you will. Now, I'm not saying that the birds and the trees and everything else God is in them. We don't teach that, do we? But they all do say something about his marvelous Christ. creation, which comes from his marvelous, his marvelous heart. And I have noticed this. I've noticed this over and over and over. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4 says that the righteous will live by

his faith. And right now, with all of the news that is going on with COVID-19 and vaccines and political situations in China and Israel and Hamas and you name it. There's so many things in the news. The question is, well, how are you going to live? How am I going to live? And Habakkuk told us how we are to live, the righteous will live by his faith, his faith. That's God's faith. And that word is emunah, which is faithfulness.

And so in the midst of all of this, do not despair, but look to the Lord and enter his classroom as he wants to show us some amazing things. And if you're struggling, here's a concrete example of God's faithfulness. And it's one of my absolute favorite text from the catechism. It's paragraph 346, which says, in creation, God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm. on which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant. For his part, man must remain faithful to this foundation and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it. Now, I love that paragraph from the Catechism because it tells us about the laws that God laid as a foundation when he created the earth.

And if you want one example, you can simply look at gravity. Gravity is a law, and that is that if you throw a ball up in the air, it will come down every single time, every single time. Now, if you're up in the space station up above Earth, that's not going to happen. why it's a different set of laws in space. But there are laws here on earth that God has established, but here's the key things to why God has established these laws in creation. He wanted you to see something. And what he wanted you to see is that these laws are a sign. What I mean by that is kind of a sacramental, if you will. It's a sign of something greater. And they are a sign and a pledge of what of the unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant now if you are a Christian today

you are in a covenant with God and as Catholics we celebrate that new and everlasting covenant every single time we go to Mass as a covenant meal is shared with you the Eucharist so you and I are in a covenant with God and according to the catechism here God has established laws which are a sign and a pledge of his unshakable faithfulness. I think that that is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Now you say, well, what does that have to do with the kill deer, bird? What does it have to do with it? Well, my wife and I were sitting in the backyard the other day, and my wife knows all the names of these birds. She knows plants and birds. He's an archaeologist. She knows a lot about what's happening here on the earth. I'm not so much.

an archaeologist. I'm more of a theology and Bible, but we worked together well. Well, we were sitting on the deck and we noticed two kill deer. Now, these are very small birds and they run across the grass in a very peculiar fashion. It's like they glide very fast with these little legs going 500 miles an hour, you know, across the lawn. And the next day, we were out walking and we came back into the back of our yard and we noticed that the kill dare were there and then we noticed something interesting we noticed that there were four little kill deer and they were kind of huddled around the mother bird and what was so beautiful was that as we got just a little bit closer we noticed that the little babies huddled under the wings of the kill deer and it was so beautiful

to look at it, the care to detail that this little mother bird had for her four little chicks. And it's very touching. And my wife, oh, look at that. And I'm like, yeah, that's interesting. I wonder what the Bible has to say about this. But then something really extraordinary happened as we started to walk towards the mother killed here with the babies. We noticed that the mother suddenly took off at a right angle and started running about, oh, 10 yards away from the babies. Now, you would think to yourself, why would the mother bird run away from the four chicks that were huddled under her wing? Why would she do that and leave them exposed? And then we found the answer. The mother bird went on a right angle about 10 yards away, and all of a sudden her back wings opened up,

and she fell to her side with one wing flapping and she was chirping. She was acting like she was injured, that she was injured and she wasn't able to function anymore. And we thought, look at that. She is acting like she's injured so that we will come after her rather than the baby chicks. Now, I've got a movie on YouTube that I have linked to the notes here to you. show you exactly what I'm talking about. I found a little video of the kill deer doing exactly this. When we saw that, both of us were so deeply touched because we saw something in it, and that was the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God. If God created the little

kill dear bird, to protect the young by acting as though they are weak and they are incapacitated so that we would come and take their life rather than the babies. That reminded us of Jesus. Now, when you look at God's creation, we remind ourselves constantly of God's faithfulness as the image of this bird and the wing is used to speak of the Lord's faithfulness. And so I went to the Bible and I started to see some tremendous verses that really illustrate exactly what I'm talking about here. And I want to share some of those with you. And if you are at home, you can go ahead and put this on pause and look at the video so you know what I'm talking about here. One of the most well-known verses in the Bible comes from Matthew chapter 23 in verse 37.

I'll put it in the notes for you. That verse is Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives, looking at the temple mount where the temple is, and there is no Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. That was dealt with way back in the Maccabean period, on the tale of the southern kingdom of Judah being taken away by the Babylonians. The Ark of the Covenant was hidden. So he looks at the temple, and what does he say? He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and sins,

stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you are not willing? That is a beautiful illustration of what the kill deer bird does with the chicks is she gathers them underneath her wings, her pinions, and gives them not only sustenance but protection. And Jesus is saying, I wanted to do this with you. I wanted to protect you. I wanted to give you sustenance. I wanted you to find safety and certitude and comfort under my wings.

But you were not willing. Now, we have a choice at that point, don't we? We can be comforted under the wings of God, or we can go out and try to find our own comfort or the comfort that man provides for us, which is not something that we can completely depend. on, as you probably know, and I know in my life, but I do know after decades of following Jesus as a disciple that he truly wants us to find refuge under his wings, like the kill deer, bird. Psalm 178 says, keep me as the apple of your eye, oh God. Keep me as the apple of your eye.

Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Now, I have other scriptures here, but let me pause for a moment. let me ask you a question are you right now in your life with all that is going on are you protected in the shadow of his wings is that where you're at right now or are you out there flailing and complaining and and miserable and anxious and discouraged or are you allowing him to protect you Psalm 91-4, he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings, you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. Now as the laws that were put into motion when God created the earth speak of his amazing faithfulness, we also see that the image of hiding beneath his wings and taking refuge there is the place of trusting his faithfulness.

faithfulness like a shield and buckler. I love this one too in Ruth chapter two in verse 12. It says, and you know that story of Ruth and the Moabite is just a beautiful story coming over to Bethlehem and ended up marrying Boaz and became the great grandmother of King David. Ruth too says, the Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Now, I have some more scriptures for you here, and I have also a suggestion on how to actually hide and be safe under the wings of the Lord. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show.

Every one of us is made in the image of God. We are unique, worthy of love, and called to greatness. In this world, though, we can be distracted from that truth and begin to doubt God's love is real. You see, we live in a world that tells us we are not smart, attractive, thin, or rich enough. It is easy to focus on the ways we fall short of worldly perfection and forget that we are already made perfect. We are already enough. I'm Danielle Bean, author of You Are Enough, what women of the Bible teach me. you about your mission and worth. You Are Enough dives into the stories of women in the Bible

so that you can fully see God's plan for your life. To order, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. video in the show notes showing you what I'm talking about here as the mother killed here is faithful to her chicks so God is faithful to you and that what we're talking about here is the wings hiding under the wings of the Lord. Psalm 63 in verse 7 says for you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. Now there's a number of other scriptures that talk about this imagery of singing for joy and the peace that comes as a result of being under the shadow of God's wings, like Psalm 61,4, Psalm 367, Psalm 571, I'll put them in your show notes for you. All of them speak about this place of being under the protection of the Lord. But what is

interesting about Psalm 63 here is that it talks about the place of joy. I will sing for joy. If you've been watching the news, the evening news, or cable news, or whatever it might be, when you're done watching it, do you just sing for joy? I don't. My wife doesn't, and I don't know of anybody who really does. Watching all of that news and saying, wow, this is a place of joy. No, there's tough things going on in the world. But if you are under the protection of God's wings, it is a place that brings you joy.

your life. Why? Because God is faithful to protect you. And let me say one more thing here that this isn't so much about you, and it's not so much about me. The emphasis here in sharing this with you today is God, his faithfulness, he's awesome, he's amazing, he's spectacular, he's extraordinary. And if you are sheltered by him and you are close to him, and like John, the apostle John, with his head against the chest of the Lord, even hearing the heartbeat of God. That's the place of joy. That's the place of joy. So there's some things you can do to go under the wings of God.

And I'm going to talk about those at the end of this show. There are some practical things you can do to place yourself under his wings. You know that beneath his wings is also in the Bible a place of mercy. Maybe you're listening to the news and maybe there's. There are things that have gone in your life where you feel like, you know what, I'm dead meat. I have no hope here and, oh, I feel lost. Maybe you feel like that. Another interesting aspect of being beneath his wings is related to mercy.

Mercy. In the building of the tabernacle in Exodus chapter 25 in verse 20, we have a description of building the Ark of the Covenant. Now, the Ark of the Covenant in Israel was the most holy of all of the furniture. It was a small box made of acacia wood. It was overlaid with gold. And in it was a bowl of the manna, a copy of the Ten Commandments, and Aaron's budding staff, speaking of the great high priestly role. when god gave moses the directions on how to build this he made sure that he told moses that on top of the ark of the covenant that would be called the mercy seat that's where israel obtained mercy every year as the high priest would go in

and obtain mercy the mercy seat i have some podcasts in the past you can look up that speak about mary and the mercy seat the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Ark of the Covenant, so many parallels here. But this is what's interesting. Listen to the description. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. Now this is a beautiful picture here, isn't it?

the box, the Ark of the Covenant. On top of it are two cherubim and they're facing each other and their wings are touching each other's wings above the ark. And they're overshadowing the mercy seat. And that really tells me that there is protection and mercy and a place of joy underneath the wings. And it's interesting because the New Testament really places Mary, our mother in the role of the mercy seat and that she is the source of mercy. She gives birth to the one who was merciful to the world, Jesus Christ. So my point is that even in the creation of the tabernacle in the Old Testament, we see wings above the most holy, important piece of furniture in all of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant. And you and I can find

ourselves in that place beneath his wings, the place of mercy. And certainly the Blessed Virgin Mary, our walk with her, involves mercy as she prays and intercedes for us. A few other thoughts about this. Job 3913 talks about how not all things that look safe are necessarily safe. You know what I mean? sometimes we go and we start investigating online or we go to a bookstore or we we end up in some kind of new age movement that speaks about this place of safety for your life and growth but it

turns out that it's not and job brings this up in job 3913 when he says the wings of the ostrich wave proudly look at me look at me and then it goes on and says but are they the pinions and plumage of love? Good question, isn't it? Let me say that again. The wings of the ostrich waved proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? You see, the opinions and plumage, the wings that God is talking to us about are the place of love. And we are hidden beneath his wings and gathered beneath him because he loves you. He loves us. He loves you so much that he gave his life for you. And this love and this place of mercy and this place of faithfulness and joy is a place where God will catch you and he will provide for you even when you fall. And maybe

you have. Maybe in this last year, maybe you fell in some way. I would encourage you to run to the Lord today with all of your heart. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 32, like an eagle that stirs up its nest that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. Oh, that is good. That is good. We have eagles flying around our house all the time. And we have these giant eagles nests. And we can see the mother eagle with eglots in this big nest. And we can see as she lands on the nest, she flutters over her young, spreads her wings out and she's ready to catch them, bearing them on her opinions. And you know what? That's what the Lord wants to do in your life today. Might sound a little bit funny, but it's true. God wants to

flutter over you. Isn't that beautiful? God wants to flutter over you. He wants to spread out his wings over you. He wants to catch you when you fall. The kill deer, back to the little bird. that spread out her little wings over her little chicks. Kildare, you speak so well of God's faithfulness. You communicate his kindness and love so well, so well. Oh, that we would be like the Kildare with our children, with those that have been given to us that we're responsible for. and you can see how heinous abortion is when a mother is called to flutter over her young

spread out her wings over her young and protect them what an awful thought what an awful thought what an awful thought we have when we speak about abortion you know that there's also this idea of deliverance. This is the last text I want to share with you, and then I'm going to talk just briefly about some things that you can do to place yourself under God's wings, like the baby chicks, place themselves under the mother, killed earbird. Exodus 194, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, God said. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. My dear friend, if you today are in need of this kind of deliverance, this kind of catching you

when you fall, this place of joy, this experience of faithfulness, this understanding of God's love, you need to place yourself under his wings. You need to do that. Now, you know, I said to you at the top of the show that the killed your bird, once she knew that we were a direct threat to her chicks, she went on a 90 degree angle about 10 yards out and she feigned weakness she acted like her wing was broken she was helpless why so i would go after her now i thought a lot about this my wife and i discussed it and came to the conclusion that this speaks of jesus that i was the one in danger i was the one that was going to lose my life i was the one that was eternally lost And not only did Jesus take the attention and place it upon himself to pay with his life for me,

not only did he run 10 yards out and say, take me, but he did. He died. He offered up his life for you. And here's the beautiful thing, is that once he was dead, once they placed him in the tomb, he rose from the dead. and now again he invites you to come under his wings listen if he has defeated death hell in the grave he can defeat your problem if he remain faithful on the cross and the resurrection he will be faithful in your circumstances do you know that do you believe that the very thing we have

worked so hard to preserve, that's life, is the thing that Jesus gave up, and now we find meaning in that. Now, what can you do? What can you do about putting yourself under the wings of the Lord? Well, the first thing that comes to mind as I was meditating on this was to very quickly, today, tomorrow, make a beeline to your local chapel where they have adoration. Maybe it's for a few hours in the evening. Maybe it's 24-7. But find a parish that has adoration and make a point of going there. And as you go into that chapel, I want you to think something or say something to yourself.

And that is, Lord, I am coming to sit under your wings. today that as you enter and you find a pew and you take that kneeler out and you kneel down before the blessed sacrament you say in your heart lord jesus i am here to place myself under the invitation of your wings to find peace and joy and to catch me and to provide mercy and so that is one of the things that you can do. Another is that when you go to Mass and you receive the Eucharist, be mindful of the fact that of what I read earlier to you from paragraph 346 of the Catechism, that this, when I receive the Eucharist, I am receiving and saying amen to his unshakable faithfulness, the unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant, because that is what you are saying

amen to. And then I also recommend that you get deep into the Word of God and these scriptures that I used here today. I'm going to put in the notes and I would encourage you to take an hour or so and maybe print out these scriptures or just look at them on your phone or your iPad or your computer and do Lexio Divina. Meditate on all of these texts that speak about the wings of God and what they mean to you. those are those are some things that i think are really really important and i would end with this and that is that around you today there are people there are people in your life who are lost and they're chirping and they're lost and they're afraid maybe you can be a part of bringing them to jesus

maybe you can suggest that they come with you to a holy hour maybe you can invite them to mass a part of the solution. Oh, God is so faithful. You know, this week as you go and you live as a disciple, I would encourage you to take note of nature. Take note of how God created the earth and look for the laws that speak of his unshakable faithfulness. You see, his classroom is a smart classroom. His classroom is a big classroom. His classroom has so many props that speak about himself. And so school is not out. It's in. And I hope you can see what he's saying to you. Enjoy the video of the kill dear. And imagine yourself being one of those chicks under their mother's wings. Let me pray for you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, Jesus, I thank you today for your faithfulness.

I thank you today, Lord, that you created so many, so many beautiful and complex animals in this earth that do echo the praise of God and show us aspects of yourself. For you are the one who said, look at the birds, the sparrow, and that you'll take care of us. I thank you for that, Lord. and I ask you, Lord, to really show this to my friends. May it become real, and may they take action to place themselves under your wing. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. My friend, God bless you.

Remember to join us for Bible in a year. And with Father Mike Schmitz and myself, you can check that out. I'll put that in the show notes. You have a fantastic week. Thank you.