Consider the Ravens
Relevant Scripture
Genesis 1:20-23 . . . And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
Genesis 8:6-7 . . . After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
Job 12:7-11 . . . “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?
Job 27:14 . . . “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.”
Job 38:41 (God Questioning Job) . . . Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?
1 Kings 17:2-6 . . . Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
Psalm 147:7-11 . . . Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Luke 12:22-32 . . . And Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”
Romans 1:19-20 (The Message) . . . The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.
Consider the Raven
By Tim Smith
Temperatures are coming down in our Arizona desert, making for great walking in the early mornings and evenings. Canadian geese in lovely V-shaped formations are honking their way back to a lake near our home. They are rejoining the bald eagles that endured the summer heat. A great horned owl has taken up winter residence in a tree outside our window, hooting his three signature hoots during the night. I delight in these marvelous wonders of God’s creation and in watching for His presence with us.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the father of the scientific method, saw God in His creation. Bacon said: “God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.”
The Lord Jesus encouraged both the study of God’s Scripture book and the study of God’s book of creation. Jesus followed the wisdom tradition of ancient Israel that looked to creation for God’s teaching. It is exemplified in Proverbs 6:6: “Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.”
Put on your walking shoes, venture out in God’s wondrous world and consider. God’s fingerprints are on everything you see! The word “consider” in todays’ Scripture, “Consider the ravens…Consider the lilies”, is a translation of the Greek katanoeo. It is a rich, multi-layered word variously translated “to perceive, observe, understand, consider attentively, fix one’s eyes or mind on.” William Barclay notes that katanoeo “means to fix the attention on something in such a way that its inner meaning, the lesson that it is designed to teach, may be learned.” Jesus means for us to look at the Canadian geese, the eagles, the ravens, the lilies, and learn the lesson God designed to teach us in them. Consider!
When translators first searched for a word to translate the Greek katanoeo they found it in “consider.” It is an old word that literally means, “to look at the stars.” It is made up of the Latin sidrus that means a “star.” The word “consider” goes back to days before the telescope when early astronomers would lie on the ground for hours and look up at the sky and consider. So, Jesus invites us to, “Consider the ravens.”
In considering the ravens it is important to keep in mind that the Law of Moses regarded ravens as unclean animals (Leviticus 11:15; Deuteronomy 14:14), and the people regarded them a nuisance. Yet, consider, your heavenly Father cares for them! So, Jesus asks us to consider: “Of how much more value are you than the birds!”
The old English hymnist Isaac Watts considered God in all of His creation, and rejoiced:
“There’s not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known, and clouds arise, and tempest blow, by order from Thy throne; while all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care; and everywhere that we can be, Thou, God art present there.”
Some things to consider:
Take some time to look at the night sky, the moon, the stars and constellations. What feelings stir in you as you look? What do you think God wants you to understand?
Study a sunrise or sunset, and note the feelings that stir in you. What do you sense God saying to you in what you see and feel?
Take time to closely examine a flower or a bird; pay attention to the colors, the shapes and the tiniest details. Consider the lessons that God is teaching you there.
Go for a walk asking God to open your eyes to His presence in what you see.
Penelope Krebs: from LA Hard-Edge to Ornithological Art
By Ann Japenga, 2010
To be an abstract artist in LA in the 1980s was the next best thing to being lead singer in a punk band. You lived in a downtown LA loft and partied with celebrities. Hard-edge artist Penelope Krebs enjoyed the perks of the scene for nearly 20 years until the death of her husband, fellow artist William (“Bill”) Dwyer, in 2004.
Penelope Krebs Painting
Then Krebs stopped painting her huge geometric canvases. The magic of all those lines and colors–the magic of the parties–was gone for her. Someone told her there were artists living near Joshua Tree National Park and she thought maybe she could start over again there.
As we know, plenty of LA artists have moved to Joshua Tree in recent years. The path from city to country is not unique. But what happened next for Krebs was more than anyone could have predicted–especially the artist herself.
When she moved into a renovated Morongo homestead in 2005, she wasn’t painting; and her work doing research for lawyers had slowed due to the recession. Krebs sat outside a lot and worried. That’s when she began to notice the birds. Krebs unknowingly had moved to a major stopover on the Pacific Flyway, with more than 250 species of resident and tourist birds for neighbors.
Throughout time, of course, birds have claimed the attention of artists. From Hieronymus Bosch to John James Audubon, many people have painted birds. The Morongo birds had Krebs’ attention, alright, but she was uneasy painting them because of the anti-realism bias common to abstract painters. Painting a bird that looked like a bird seemed vaguely quaint, like crocheting. What would Bill, her late husband, have thought if she started painting house finches? But paint a finch she did, and one finch led to another. Soon she was hanging up feeders and adding bird-friendly plants to the desert landscaping around her house.
The painter once known for huge abstract bands of color began to sell paintings of orioles and grosbeaks. Her abstract artist friends from LA were having a hard time selling work, but her birds were flying out the door. At a recent show at the Lincart Gallery in San Francisco, the bird paintings sold out. A reviewer on the website ArtBusiness.com wrote: “I don’t know about you, but to me $2200 isn’t exactly chump change….But it’s a non-issue—all the birds are sold, and deservedly so. Chew on this: Who would have thought vanguard San Francisco artsters would ever embrace wildlife art?”
Krebs’ champion in the transition from abstract to representational has been her sister, Pamela Carroll, a realist painter from Carmel. When the two were little they painted birds together with no thought of whether it was cool. But then Krebs went off to study abstract art at the UCSB College of Creative Studies with teachers John McCracken and James Hayward.
Krebs later showed her hard-edged abstract work extensively in the LA area and was reviewed in the LA Times, Art in America and many other publications. Decades later, it was her sister who encouraged her to return to hummingbirds and sparrows. The sisters’ grandmother, Alma Carmody, was a landscape painter in 29 Palms, so there may have been some inspiration in the gene pool as well.
On a recent morning, Krebs’ yard was alive with quail, roadrunners, doves and a monster jackrabbit nibbling cactus. The artist opens all her windows and listens to bird chatter while painting; her work table is positioned in front of multiple feeders. To soak in even more birds, she goes hiking every morning in Morongo Preserve with her black lab, Pip, and looks for migrant species flitting in and out of the cottonwoods. “I don’t consider myself a birder,” she says. “I don’t know birds that well.”
It’s the physical act of painting she loves, the layer upon layer upon layer of tiny strokes it takes to capture a thrasher’s wing. This style of bird painting calls on the same attention to formality and precision as her earlier abstract work. Surrounded by birds living and painted, Krebs is still somewhat unclear where all of this is leading. “I’m on a journey and I’m hoping the birds will take me to another place.” Whatever the future holds for her art, she does know one thing: “The birds saved my life.”
Penelope Krebs, “Cardinal”, watercolor on paper
“Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift
to us, if we only look and see.”
Mary Oliver