“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? (Matthew 6:25-20, NRSVue)
Icons in the Byzantine style usually present images fixed for all eternity. This contemporary illustration of my next oft-quoted "biblical bird" passage by Cypriot Icon-maker Charalambos Epaminonda buzzes with life. You feel as if Jesus must raise his voice for his call to consider the birds and the lilies to be heard by this largely indifferent crowd, where many are measuring out cloth, modeling fashion accessories, and taking too much thought for tomorrow. At least, the little child with a “bird of the air” perched on its finger just to the right of the feet of Jesus has gotten the message. So has the feathered flock swaying in the branches above Christ’s head, all astir with God's providential love for Creation. (John Kohan)