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Thought for the Month The sparrow has had the reputation of being one of the humblest birds. Perhaps because it's small and brown or maybe because they are found all over the world and there are millions of them even in this country. According to the RSPB there are 5.3 million breeding pairs in the UK, although they stated the populations declined by 71% from 1977 to 2008. No wonder it has been noticed that even the humble sparrow is a rarer visitor to the back gardens of Britain. The reputation of the common humble sparrow explains why the Lord Jesus said that the heavenly Father notices what happens to even the small, rather plain and common sparrow. Nothing is beneath His notice or hidden from Him. Therefore how much more must he watch over the human population. The bird is used again in Matthew 6.26 to show how the heavenly Father feeds the birds that fly in the air. Therefore how much more does he provide for us. He does more than provide for us, he cares for us (1 Pet.5.7) and more than that he loves us (John 16.27). People have always been at the heart of the divine plan. In the early days of the Christian era (Gospel Age) it included men such as Paul who persecuted the church, yet received forgiveness of his hand in the death of many. It also included men and women such as the tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla. People such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were used as well as James, Jude and Paul to provide us with the New Testament today.
1 Peter 5.7 He cares for you. |
However
it is worth sparing a thought for a man who spent many prominent years in
England, the Dutch scholar and reformer Desiderius Erasmus (1466‑1536). 500
years ago in 1516 he published the Greek New Testament with a Latin translation
alongside. He wanted to go back to the original source of the Christian faith
and used all the Greek manuscripts available. William Tyndale is believed to
have used Erasmus' version to produce his New Testament in English.
On
the contrary 1516 was to leave a less happy record in the birth of Queen Mary
Tudor. She used her position as head of the government and first queen regnant
to burn to death some 300 persons, according to S.T.Bindoff, for their
Christian beliefs from 1555 starting with one John Rogers, another Bible
translator who met this horrible end at Smithfield on 4 February 1555.