Unlike humans, birds do not plant crops in order to provide food. They fly around looking for seeds or insects and they do so without anxiety.1 Tireless in their pursuit of food, they are not lazy, but they work for their living.2 Nevertheless, they do so dependent on God for provision. He feeds them with the plants that grow and insects that feed on plants. God uses ordinary means (other parts of creation) to care for the birds. The implication is that he will also provide for his people through ordinary means.3
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?