Look at the birds of the air

One is tempted to question the copy editor’s bona fides—or at least those of spell-check—when encountering the term ornitheology within a printed work. However, this seeming malfeasance of spelling actually refers to the intentional commingling of two seemingly unrelated terms: ornithology, the study of birds, and theology, the study of God. The term was first used by theologian and pastor John R.W. Stott in his 1999 book The Birds Our Teachers in which Stott expands on Martin Luther’s writings on Matthew 6, in which Luther observes, “It is a great and abiding disgrace to us that in the Gospel a helpless sparrow should become a theologian and a preacher to the wisest of men, and daily should emphasize this to our eyes and ears.”

Like Stott, Kevin Burrell, a pastor in North Carolina, is an ardent birdwatcher who has traveled the world in order to observe these unique creatures. In Considering Sparrows: What Birds Teach Us About Who We Are, Where We’re Going, and the Joy of Following Jesus (Multnomah, 240 pp.), Burrell observes, “All the world is a stage for God’s wildly creative ingenuity. But when it comes to birds, we get the sense that perhaps God is showing off … After all, he could have made one species of bird and called it a day. Instead, he overwhelms our global senses with over ten thousand species.”

The book is a fascinating survey of the foibles and virtues of 16 different bird species, but Considering Sparrows is also a nuanced exposition of the Book of Philippians. In the prologue, Burrell says, “All truth is God’s truth, good stories tell the great story, and every corner of God’s creation is a window to the gospel if we have eyes to see it.” He writes with playful language that suggests he is experiencing joy in sharing his passion for all things feathered. Nevertheless, Burrell always directs the reader’s attention back to the essential message and intent of the book—the gospel of Jesus Christ as seen through Paul’s letter to the Philippian church.

For example, Chapter 8 is titled “A Bird Mascot for the Church,” and in it, the author uses the humble hummingbird as a metaphor for how the church transforms culture. The hummingbird’s being “among the most efficient pollinators in the world” is correlated with “ordinary believers committed to … bringing the realities of ‘thy kingdom come’ to a wilting world.” This is just one of the many examples of how God’s creatures are able to point us to the One who created us—a point endorsed by Joni Eareckson Tada, author of the book’s foreword: “Every creature that exists was especially made by God to reflect a unique aspect of its creator.”