Carol of the Birds

“Carol of the Birds” – November 23rd, 2025

“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.”

“The gift to be cherished most of all is that of life itself. One’s work should be a salute to life.”

“Music! This marvelous universal language understood by everyone, everywhere, ought to be a source of better communication among men. This is why I make a special appeal to my fellow musicians, everywhere, asking each one to put the beauty of his art at the service of mankind.”

“To live is not enough; we must take part.”

These are all quotes from Pablo Casals, a Spanish-born Catalan and Puerto Rican cellist, composer, and conductor. Catalans are a Romance-speaking ethnic group native to Catalonia (an autonomous community in northeast Spain whose capital is Barcelona). Casals is widely considered to be one of the greatest cellists of all time. He was also a lifelong defender of democracy, human rights, peace, and national self-determination, honored with the United Nations Peace Medal in 1971.

Casals began his concerts by playing a traditional Catalan carol and lullaby which he also considered a symbol of freedom and peace, El Cant Dels Ocells. On November 13th, 1961, he performed at the White House by invitation of President Kennedy at a dinner given in honor of the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico. The music we heard earlier was his signature song and his encore that night, Carol of the Birds. Speaking of this carol, Casals famously stated that the birds sing “Peace, Peace, Peace!” Incidentally, fellow peace activist, Joan Baez, included this carol in her 1966 best-selling Christmas LP Noël, with a dedication to Casals.

My hope is that music and birds will help us to better understand some deep Scriptural truths and to more deeply experience the love of God today. Music is a language understood by everyone, from the tiniest babies to seniors struggling with advanced memory loss. Birds live and travel the globe on land and sea – there are an estimated 50-400 billion wild birds and 22-30 billion domesticated birds in the world today.

Because we have lived in the same neighborhood for 36 years, I am so used to “our” birds that I don’t necessarily always hear them every day. Research into auditory adaptation shows that, as time progresses, we tend to adapt to sounds and tend to distinguish them less frequently after a while. Many people end up tuning out sounds like traffic noises, passing trains, and washing machines. When we were in the thick of raising our children, I only traveled outside of the country once in a 24-year period. Now, when I travel somewhere far away where the bird life is vastly different, guess what I always notice first? The local birds – cawing, cooing, croaking, chirping, warbling, whistling, whinnying, trilling, tweeting, hooting, laughing, buzzing, screeching, drumming, or peenting (look it up!). Their many and varied sounds are new and unusual, so I hear them loud and clear, and they truly touch my soul every time.

We don’t have time to explore all scriptural references to creation today, but we are going to take a look at some of the 300+ mentions of birds in the Bible.

Birds are mentioned quite a few times in Genesis, starting with the very first chapter of the Bible, in Genesis 1:20,21,22 – “let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky … God created … every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “… let birds multiply on the earth.” God said in Genesis 1:29,30 – “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And … to every bird of the air … I have given every green plant for food.” Genesis 2:19,20 tells us that “out of the ground the Lord God formed … every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.” In the pre- and post-flood narratives, God instructed Noah concerning the protection of birds “to keep them alive,” “to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth,” “so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth,” even entrusting the care of birds into humanity’s hands.

God is both creator and sustainer of all that there is, and God assures us of his intimate awareness of his creation. In Psalm 50:11 God assures us, “I know all the birds of the air.”

While we insult the intelligence of birds with the term “birdbrained,” the Bible honors birds as sources of knowledge and wisdom. Job 12:7,9-10 tells us to “ask … the birds of the air, and they will tell you … Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.”

Many passages throughout the Old Testament make mention of human flesh being eaten by birds. As hard as that is for us to hear that kind of thing, some birds are simply scavengers and serve as a kind of natural sanitation service.

Birds make a vital contribution to the keeping of several Old Testament laws and commandments. Leviticus 1 and 5 include instructions for burnt offerings and sin offerings, noting that if birds are brought to the Lord, they must be turtledoves or pigeons. Leviticus 14 describes processes involving birds which were required for the cleansing of various skin diseases or for the cleansing of a house.

God chose birds as his special messengers when he sent the prophet Elijah to live in a rainless place. God promised to provide for Elijah in 1 Kings 17:4: “I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

God’s presence evokes a response from more than just people, as we see in Ezekiel 38:20 – “the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all human beings that are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence.”

God makes covenants (alliances) with more than just people, as we see in Hosea 2:18 – “I will make for you a covenant on that day with … the birds of the air.”

Birds are often referenced in biblical figurative and apocalyptic language, because both bird behavior and human behavior towards birds are observable to all and commonly understood everywhere. Here are a few samples:

• Psalm 102:7 – “I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.”
• Proverbs 27:8 – “Like a bird that strays from its nest is one who strays from home.”
• Ecclesiastes 9:12 – “like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity.”

Jesus’ teachings include mentions of birds in both his Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Mustard Seed. Jesus encourages us to consider the birds when we are tempted to worry. Jesus assures us that God feeds the birds, so we can trust that God will provide for us, too.

For me, one of the most significant references to birds in the Bible is something else that Jesus said, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew. For context, Jesus has just spoken six woes to the scribes and Pharisees, not as condemnations or curses, but as acknowledgments of what needed to change. They had been focusing on the wrong things, religion and legalism. Jesus wants them to understand the most important thing, which is the love of God. He knew that they couldn’t give away that which they had yet to receive. After all, love is an action. You can hear the longing and even pain in Jesus’ voice as he says in Matthew 23:37 – “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” Jesus chooses the image of a hen, a mother in nature seen and understood well by his audience. It was common knowledge that hens gather their chicks under their wings for warmth, nurture, comfort, and protection, especially when they are most vulnerable.

Jesus wants us to know that this is how God longs for each of us. Our Creator, Savior, and Lord is also our Comforter. God longs that we would receive from him warmth, nurture, comfort, and protection. Just as chicks don’t know what they need, we don’t really know what we need either. We aren’t completely clueless, but how often do we try to warm, nurture, comfort, or protect ourselves, forgetting to lean into the Lord and let him love us? In Isaiah 66:13, the Lord assures us, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” How often do we try to do it all, all by ourselves, and forget that God has placed us in a family, the family of God? 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 calls to us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.”

Whenever I think of God being our comforter, I often return to Deuteronomy 33:12 – “The beloved of the Lord rests in safety— the High God surrounds him all day long— the beloved rests between his shoulders.” Some of my most precious memories are those with my children in their earliest years. Young children experience distress for many reasons and do not have either understanding or language to be able to be able to clearly communicate their troubles. Whenever one of my sons or daughters were distressed, I would scoop them up in my arms, hold them securely in my embrace, let them rest with their head on my shoulder, and rock them back and forth, back and forth, all the while singing a sweet lullaby over them. A lullaby is a soothing song, often to help a little one fall asleep. Sometimes the lullaby I sang over my children was a familiar song. Often, I made up the tune as we rocked and embraced, with words simply emerging from present circumstances. Whether the words changed or not, everything else remained the same. The sameness of the melody, rocking, and embrace created space in which to relax by degrees, to release distress, to receive devotion, and to rest deeply. The melody went on, the rocking went on, the embrace went on. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Eventually, the sweet lullaby calmed my child, and they were able to drift off to sleep.

These two images, that of a mother hen tenderly tucking her cluster of chicks under her wings and that of a parent embracing a beloved child on their shoulder, help us to understand how God enfolds us. We are God’s beloved children! You are God’s beloved child! God ever invites us to know and experience the presence, attention, and love of God. We are ever enfolded in the eternal embrace, the trinitarian dance of love and joy and peace and rest. In God’s embrace, we are filled and sent out, to offer the presence, attention, and love of God to the world.

Today I believe the Lord is beckoning us to come to Jesus in all of our most vulnerable places, the places where we are carrying distress. It takes time to relax, to release, to receive, and to rest. The reality is that we have been through so much, dear brothers and sisters, in recent months and years in our little congregation. Let’s resist the temptation to minimize the reality of our lives, which is that we have each suffered a lot of distress. Never mind the unbearable weight of the difficulties “out there” in the news, in our country, and around the world. Let’s get personal here. We have all suffered the loss of loved ones. Some of us are dealing with chronic, long-lasting situations, either personally or with those close to us, whether to do with dreadful diagnoses, difficult disabilities, or other physical or mental health conditions. Most of us have experienced relational brokenness. These things all have a tendency to sap our strength and hamstring our hope!

The good news is that Lord is present today to heal and to restore. May we allow the Holy Spirit to warm, nurture, comfort, and protect us right here, right now. May the Lord, through this Christmas carol, lull us into a place of peace, as the good news washes over us. I love this Christmas carol so much! The soothing repeated melody and the lyrics intertwine, continually drawing us upward, like birds, in joy and adoration. The song seeks to tell the whole story of the good news of Jesus. And it is the humble birds, whose cries and flutterings we often ignore, that invite us to enter into the wonder and beauty of encountering the Messiah.

As Tamera and I sing and play, you are welcome to participate through singing or silence. God is with us, in every conceivable way and in every breath we take. I pray that, through this carol, we would each receive God’s telling of beautiful, poetic things to our hearts. I pray that this lullaby would soothe and restore us, that we would experience afresh the presence and power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray for God’s grace to allow each of us to be able to relax by degrees, release distress, receive devotion, and rest deeply. Come to Jesus! I invite you now to enter fully into the beauty and wonder of the Carol of the Birds! Come, Holy Spirit!

(I sought to remain faithful to the original Catalan in translating all 15 verses of this traditional Christmas carol and lullaby. It was important to me to retain the present tense: being in the present helps us to receive the birds’ invitations to join their worship of the newborn Messiah in wonder. Good theology and faithfulness to Scripture are crucial to me as a pastor and seminarian, and I treasure the emphasis on the biblical narrative. I chose meter and rhyme with poetic care. I hope you enjoy my attempts to present this beautiful carol and lullaby in English! ~ Karen Sculley)

Carol of the Birds (Karen Sculley’s translation)

1. On this most blissful night
emerges a great light
and fills the sky with splendor.
Birds come with joyful voice
to carol and rejoice
with songs so sweet and tender.

2. The eagle does arise,
flies high into the sky,
to tell the wondrous story,
sings: Jesus, born is he,
from sin all are set free,
he brings immortal and gladness.

3. The sparrow does perceive:
Today is Christmas Eve,
a night of awesome wonder.
The sky with praises ring,
as finch and robin sing
their songs of pure elation.

4. The linnet gives a trill:
How very beautiful
is the sweet child of Mary!
The thrush strongly intones:
Now death is overthrown
and my abundant life begins.

5. The nightingale cheep cheeps:
He’s bright, yet, while he sleeps,
more brilliant than a rising star!
The redstart and stonechat
both loudly jubilate
the infant and his mother.

6. The wren sings heartily
for God’s great glory,
soars to the heights of ecstasy.
Canary imitates,
echoes, approximates
a wondrous song from heaven.

7. The woodlark chirps its words
and calls to all the birds
to celebrate the early dawn.
The blackbird, whistling,
adores the newborn king,
and honors mother Mary.

8. The great tit meditates
profoundly, and relates:
It surely must be springtime.
For, in this great advent,
a flower’s sweetest scent
pervades the world completely.

9. The francolin invites:
Birds, who will come, this night,
to see the babe at daybreak?
We’ll gaze in wonderment
at God’s magnificence
inside a humble stable.

10. The hoopoe joins the song:
This night the king has come,
a king above all others!
The turtle- and rock- doves
extol this greatest love,
their song devoid of sadness.

11. Bullfinch and woodpecker,
among fruit trees they whir,
their gladness resonating.
The quail and the cuckoo,
from far away they, too,
now worship the Messiah.

12. The partridge does attest:
Now I will make my nest
inside of that small stable,
to gaze upon the child
who trembles still and sighs
embraced by his dear mother.

13. The magpie, thrush, and jay
cry: It will be like May!
The goldfinch notes, with clarity:
The trees will soon turn green
and flowers will be seen
on ev’ry branch, like springtime.

14. The chaffin whispers, awed:
Today, glory to God!
I feel unending, matchless joy
to see this priceless gem
so lovely, radiant
held in the arms of Mary.

15. The smaller owls arrive
before the new sunrise,
astonished by God’s radiance.
The larger owls, entranced,
can’t gaze or even glance
at majesty so glorious!