SONGS ABOUT BIRDS
SONGS ABOUT BIRDS
By Peggy Williams AKA Birdie of Mississippi
While taking my morning walk I wear my headphones to listen to music
on my phone and it helps increase my pace while walking. I don’t listen to music the whole walk
because I enjoy listening to the morning chatter and song of the birds in the
neighborhood. But yesterday as I walked one of the songs talked about “singing
to Jesus” and the morning songs of the birds became praise to God for the new
day we had been given to enjoy.
As this thought took hold I began to wonder about pop songs that had
been written that mentioned birds in them that I might know, so I Googled to
see what I might find. On Billboard.com this
bit of wisdom was imparted - “Birds are often used as a metaphor for feeling
free – flying above whatever it is that might be holding you down. That’s one of the reasons artist play on
birds – doves, vultures, bird songs or just the word “bird” generically – as a
symbol in a song.” The article goes on to list 20 songs about birds. Some of the titles and the groups, I quickly
recognized like Prince - “When Doves Cry”, Michael Jackson – “Rockin’ Robin”, the
Beatles - “Blackbird” and a song from my college days “Free Bird” by Lynyrd
Skynyrd. I didn’t really recognize some
of the others listed, but it made me realize that birds in song have played a
part in our lives.
“Rockin’ Robin” written by Jimmie Thomas and sung by Michael Jackson
has upbeat lyrics. “He rocks in the tree
tops all day long – Hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and singing his song. All the little birdies on Jaybird Street love
to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet.” They are upbeat and fun, yet they also
look at a bird’s life and see it as an easier life than a human! They seem to
say that a bird’s life is full of singing and dancing.
In Forest Gump Jenny asked
Forest to pray with her a little prayer “Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly
far, far away from here. Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far away
from here.” In fact when Jenny was at
her worse in her hippy years Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” played in the
background sound track. Taking flight and flying away from our problems like
Jenny can very often sound appealing to us all and can make the life of a bird
sound like the life to have. But, as
Jenny found out in the movie, running away from our problems doesn’t help, if
fact, they generally get worse.
When I was young I thought God was far, far away and how was I to
reach him? Did I need to have wings like
a bird so I could fly to Him for help? Can a human’s life not be full of
singing and dancing also? Can we not
turn our troubles over to God and our lives become different? Just
as God helps the “birds of the air” with their life problems, He will help us
with our problems.
Christmas is now over, but the theme of Christmas remains – Emmanuel
“God with Us.” God became a man and came
to earth to be with us, so we don’t have to take wings and fly to Him. He is here with us and we don’t have to be
blue birds or red birds – just humans that love Him. “Look at the birds of the air” and remember
that He cares for you. Matthew 6:26.
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