by Rev Douglas Brauner

Finding nourishment in Christ when life feels empty.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'”
John 4:13 English Standard Version

This bird feeder is often visited by house finches and chickadees. Each has their own way of attacking the feeder. The chickadees will pluck a sunflower seed and head to a nearby tree. They will then break the shell on a branch and eat the seed. The finches will perch themselves on the feeder, crack the seeds with their beaks, and eat the seed while perched.

Whether it’s a chickadee running off with a single seed, or a finch eating till it has had its’ fill, when the feeder is empty the birds disappear. I don’t know whether they fly off to find food at another feeder, or to eat bugs, but what I do know is that if there is no food there are no birds.

What do you do when the bird feeder is empty?

I’m not talking about when there is no food in your cupboards. What do you do when you feel like this empty bird feeder?

There are moments in each of our lives when feel like we’re out of food, when we feel like God has turned his back on us. The birds fly off when there’s no food. Do we run from God when it feels like he’s left us?

The bird feeder was empty for the Samaritan woman when she met Jesus at a well. Her shame had made her feel worthless. Jesus meets her when she lacked spiritual nourishment.

Jesus meets you when you’re in need of food. It is precisely at those moments, when we are completely exhausted, that God meets us. Jesus emptied himself of everything on his cross that you might know that he is there, even when your bird feeder is empty.

Switching metaphors, he is your spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado