The Sandhill Crane: Trusting God

The Sandhill Crane is an amazing bird that has one of the longest migration journeys of any bird on earth.  Many of them travel from northern Mexico to northern Alaska and back every year.  Some of these cranes live over 40 years and they mate for life.  Every year from late February to early April, over 500,000 Sandhill cranes arrive in the Platte River valley near Kearney, Nebraska to rest and fatten up for the long journey north.  These birds are amazing in that they depend on God's provision all along the way.  God designed them with a tall light body and a massive six to seven foot wingspan.  Watching them in flight is something to behold as they seem to rise effortlessly into the sky.  Although they are completely at the mercy of the weather on their journey, God provides for them with food, resting areas, and thermal air currents that allow them to fly fast and high.  They can travel up to 400 miles per day and some birds have been seen flying at altitudes of over 29,000 feet.  An amazing journey which is only possible because of an amazing God.

There are some similarities between the migration of the Sandhill Crane and the struggles we face in life.  The current Covid 19 pandemic reminds me that I don't have as much control as I think I have.  We, like the Sandhill Crane, seem to be at the mercy of something that is completely out of our control, yet these birds teach us what it means to trust our God and Creator with each day of our lives while living on this earth.  The writer of Job said it well:

Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.  . . . .The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.   Job 12:7,10