This was the week the swallows chose to leave us for warmer climes. Not even the present spell of fine weather could persuade them to stay. The migratory instinct was too much – they had to leave.

Last Sunday they were massing on the wires that crisscross the 14 acres. The chatter was powerful. They were making their travel arrangements.

This year’s chicks would need to listen carefully as it would be at least 6 months before they would see the green fields of Ireland again.

Most importantly they need full stomachs and the aerial gymnastics around the Pines and Ash trees indicated a rich harvest of insects were being delivered to them on the gentle breeze.

The musical twittering notes which had heralded their arrival last April were now amplified to the full orchestra with the excitement of the imminent departure. It was farewell to the nests so beautifully sculpted in mud and straw to produce the bowl shape that would hold the 4 or 5 chicks.

Gone but not forgotten as they would return to the same spot next Spring. Swallows mate for life and the offspring remain with the parents in so far as they too return to the same spot and build their nest next door to where they were born!

But for now the yard is empty. They are on their way to South Africa to enjoy their second summer of the year! Their distinctive forked tail and pointed wings cutting a path across the Sahara Desert and Equatorial Africa until they reach the same place they left many months ago.

We are so prone to worry about the things the Swallows take on trust.

Jesus pointed out how uncharacteristic it should be for the Christian who having trusted God for his salvation should worry about everyday things.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (St Matthew Chapter 6 verses 25/7)

We each choose our master – either faith or worry. Which is it to be?