We Don’t Travel Alone

Fall has arrived, and it’s already cooler. There are still two female hummingbirds who come to our feeder, but the males have already gone on their lonesome flight south to Central America. These tiny birds fly solo for hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles twice a year, stopping at feeders and nectar bearing flowers to refuel. There’s no refueling, though, on the lonely flight across the Gulf of Mexico.

All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, (Romans 3:23-25)

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, listening to “another voice”, than His, humanity took a long slide away from its Maker. But our Maker also experienced a loss, the loss of the intimate companionship of His own well loved creation.

Before the forbidden fruit was even digested in His first couple, God had a plan for bringing humanity back to Himself. It was a plan that would require much from God Himself, and would bring reconciliation to human beings in God’s son, Jesus.

Hummingbirds seem a long way from God’s redemption of His people, but they are fascinating creatures of God’s deign in our lives today, and for me their appearance yields hours of contemplation on the Creation. Migrating huge distances each year, every fragile hummer lifts itself off the branch and heads out alone, and many perish on the journey. Nevertheless, the species has survived in the Western Hemisphere for thousands, if not millions of years. Unlike other birds, the humming bird travels alone. It is not a social creature, but a loner. The mother tends to the nest alone, As soon as the little ones are fledged, the mother looks for a new nesting site and a new mate. The easy and the difficult are faced alone by each bird, yet the species survives. Its Creator provides: Are not two sparrows (humming birds?) sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside our Father’s care. (Matthew 10:29)

I believe that appreciating one of God’s smallest creatures can help us recognize that we ourselves never travel alone, and to find in Him hearts that can willingly migrate closer and closer to God’s own heart.

Love in Him,

Prue