Crows can teach us an important lesson about listening.

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“Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately.”
Ezekiel 3:17 New Living Translation

A recent study suggests that crows are as intelligent as a seven-year old child. I don’t know how the scientists determined this fact, but crows are a rather unique bird among birds.

Edmonds, Washington Waterfront

Crows will often post sentinels while feeding. These sentinels are responsible for warning the murder of trouble. In warning fellow crows, they also alert other birds and creatures of impending danger.

I don’t know if this crow was acting as sentinel the day I took this picture, but I could imagine that it was. This crow was capable of seeing long distances on top of this piece of driftwood.

It’s interesting that crows listen to these sentinels. Predators have a difficult time killing crows. When the sentinel sounds a warning, the crows take to flight and live to forage another day.

Why is it that we humans don’t like it when someone warns us about danger? Some of us even take such warnings as a challenge. The Bible warns us about the danger of certain behaviors, yet we find ourselves engaged in these behaviors anyway and then find out the Bible was correct in warning us.

Maybe we rebel against the admonitions of the Bible because we think that God doesn’t want us to have fun, when in reality God wants us to enjoy life to fullest. Jesus came into our human existence to give us life and in this life we find joy.

What Christ gives us is eternal. What the world gives is only temporary. The joy we experience this side of eternity is only a small taste of what we will experience in the presence of the One who was slain for us.

Yes, we will discover warnings in the Bible, but in heeding these warnings, like crows listening to the call of sentinel, we will also experience the joy that God desires that we experience.

Text and Photo Copyright Douglas P Brauner