Our peaceful porch has been transformed into a Blue Ridge mountain Grand Central Station at the moment. Between constantly chattering baby swallows and their continually swooping in and out parents as well as some rather combative, aggressive hummingbirds, well, there's never a dull moment up here (although my teenaged daughter might disagree).
But aren't hummingbirds amazing? I've been reading a bit about them. Their neon colors are magnificent--Audubon describing them as "a glittering fragment of the rainbow." And consider how rapidly they beat their wings--the average is 25 times a second, but in fast flight they can beat up to 200 times a second. What on earth? I can't even wrap my brain around that!
Here's the downside to all that activity: Crawford Greenwalt (who literally wrote the book on hummingbirds) said that "Hummingbirds have the highest energy output per unit of weight of any living warm-blooded animal." If an average 170 pound man consumed 3,500 calories a day, the hummingbird's equivalent would be about 155,000 calories. Geez, that's a lot of chocolate cake. And Greenwalt says "the average hummingbird consumes half its weight of sugar daily, an extraordinary intake." Based on their love of all things sweet and sugary, I'm starting to think there may be a bit of hummingbird way back in my gene pool
So here's the thing--in order to live, the hummingbird has to quite literally search for, and eat, food all day long (I'd like the eating all day part...the searching for it, not so much). John Stott, the late great British preacher and a huge bird watcher, put it perfectly: "Food gathering has become their chief occupation. They have to eat in order to replace lost energy, but they lose more energy in doing so, as they dart restlessly from flower to flower. They are caught in a vicious circle as through the process of eating they both acquire energy and expend it, and are driven to replace what they have acquired and spent. Consumption has become the main business of their existence." No wonder they are such grumpy little birds.
Boy, is that not a picture of our society...and, sadly, often of ourselves? Always pushing for more. Never quite content. Always thinking we need to be busy and doing, doing, doing...acquiring more and more...or believing we will finally be happy and content when we lose those last 5 pounds, or move into that bigger house, or get rid of all that clutter and get better organized, or acquire that more prestigious job, or see our children accepted into that perfect college, and on and on and on it goes.
How exhausting. What a hopeless, fruitless rat race! Like those restless, endlessly flitting little hummingbirds--it's never enough and creates a vicious cycle that robs us of the very joy and peace and settled contentment which we crave. And all that striving hits us with the double whammy of missing the "precious present." We forfeit the gift of savoring the never-to-be-repeated present moment in our endless quest for better or bigger or improved or perfected.
No, only in the One who made us and died to redeem us will we find our true heart's home. Only when we keep Him and His cross ever before us and live in gratitude and dependence upon Him each day will we find true peace and contentment. As Paul says, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." (Phil.4:11-13)
Teach us, Lord Jesus, that You are enough. You are always more than enough, and through You we will find true soul rest, joy, and contentment. Teach us from Your hummingbirds--we don't want to be endlessly striving and dissatisfied. Instead, might we be fixed upon You and fully present and grateful for each moment and each person in our lives. We truly can do all things through You, our Strengthener, Sustainer, and Redeemer.
To God be the glory.
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