Carney's preparations for serving in South America

Thanks for checking out our blog! Here is where we'll chronicle the "learning opportunities" God provides for us as we seek His will in partnering full-time with Christian Veterinary Mission in Bolivia

29 May 2012

Why so many birds?

After the birdfeeder post, I began to wonder what we could learn from the birds and the great variety of species.  I realized I needed to know how many birds man has classified (I'll bet there are some species we have never even seen).  So from www.birding.com here are the stats:
"There are over 10,000 species of birds in the world. About 925 have been seen in the U.S. and Canada. About 1,000 have been seen in Europe. By far the largest concentration of bird species are found in South America. Over 3,200 species have been seen there. In Colombia, Bolivia and Peru the species count for each country tops 1,700. Here are some very general figures for the species count for each continent:
3,200 South America
2,900 Asia
2,300 Africa
2,000 North America (from Panama north + Caribbean)
1,700 Australia + surrounding islands
1,000 Europe
65 Antarctica"

Wow!  Mindboggling, isn't it?  I am no orinthologist, but really, 65 species in Antarctica?  I wonder if I have seen 65 species in my life (excluding zoos I guess).  Last week I proposed that it was all about God's creativity, but I wonder if He didn't mean for us to learn from the birds, beyond Matthew 6.
God desires worship from every tongue and tribe and nation, that's the Great Commission and numerous other texts, right?  What does that really look like in heaven or when the new heavens and new earth arrive?  Are we all singing English from the hymnal in our pew?  Ok, there is the house sparrow lending its song, but what about those other 10,000 birds?
If we compare people groups (tongues, tribes, nations) to the bird species...Wow, can you imagine all 10,000 birds singing at the same time?  Overall, I'll bet it is a pretty wonderful sound.  Sure there are a couple of birds whose songs I don't like as much, but I am humble enough to know that when our church sings, the overall sound is pleasant even if I am off key or on the wrong stanza!
The Joshua Project seeks to document and quantify people groups and our progress toward fulfilling the Great Commission.  They list nearly 10,000 (9,978 in 2008) people groups in the world (these are ethno-linguistic and ethnocultural groups regardless of political boundaries).  Striking similarity to the birds, eh?  Of these people groups it is recorded that around 40% have are among the least evangelized and unreached peoples.  That makes some 2.7 billion individuals!
God desires to have every people worshipping Him and singing, and uses so many ways to reach these people.  We put out bird feeders to attract birds to hear their songs, God sacrificed His Son to enable us to draw near.  How do birds know there is a full birdfeeder?  Probably their birdy friends tell them, even across species!  How will these other 4,253 people groups know?  We must go and make disciples!
Looking forward to praising God with you now and always!
Kim

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