The Unexpected
I had been saying for years that God didn’t talk to me thru nature. While I appreciated the beauty of mountains and seas, enjoyed the occasional animal encounters and sometimes noticed flowers and such, these weren’t the ways God usually stirred my heart. Until one morning, a few years ago, after telling a group of ladies the night before, that God doesn’t speak to me thru nature – God with his sense of humor, sent me a hummingbird. I don’t just mean I saw a hummingbird – I mean on a gray dreary Wednesday morning, as I sat on the bench on my covered porch, a silly little hummingbird decided to fly straight into the porch, stop directly in front of me, and just hover, maybe a foot in front of me. I could have reached out and touched it. And then it lingered. No flitting in and flitting out, but rather a full stop directly in front of me, probably for more than a minute.
I had just been railing against God. Really I was trying to pray, but it wasn’t coming out that way. I was mad that life wasn’t turning out the way we planned. After losing my husband’s mother very unexpectedly the previous year, to spending months trying to sell a former rental after repairing it twice, to buying two new cars within 2 months of each other because 2 older vehicles died, watching my daughter choose to walk away from college, having my son total one of the new cars, and coming up on 3 months of unemployment for my husband, after 19 years of committed service, and none of that anywhere near resolution – my father-in-law was going in for a relatively simple heart procedure – but everything in me screamed God can I trust you? And He answered with a HUMMINGBIRD.
Message Received
My immediate reaction – I laughed. My heart bubbled up and I felt joy and then peace. First, I laughed because clearly God has a sense of humor, sending me a bird 12 hours after announcing, not for the first time, that God doesn’t speak to me through nature. Peace, because somewhere in my heart, I understood, Dad was going to be OK. Mom’s favorite bird was a hummingbird, she painted them, she planted flowers for them, she hung feeders for them, and that was absolutely the right sign that day. Because I’m curious, I did some research. Hummingbirds are first and foremost a symbol of joy. God was ushering in my joy – and then I went on to read that hummingbirds are different than any other bird – they can fly into the wind, or with the wind, they can go left/right/up/down/full speed/ full stop and of course they can hover in place. And I felt the voice of God telling me to just keep up. He wasn’t done. I didn’t need to know where we were going, I just need to keep up. Move in whichever direction he moves or just stand still. He’s got this and He’s got me.
Are you listening?
It’s been 4 years since that Wednesday morning on the porch, and I’m still just trying to keep up. What I know now, is that all the challenges of that season, were just the precursors to the next season, and then the next season. The truth is each year has held challenges and celebrations. Each year has held disappointment and hope. Each year has held unknown next steps.
How is God speaking to you in this season? Where are you missing Him because you aren’t expecting Him there? He can be found in the beach and the mountains, in the hummingbird and the moose, but also in the isolation of quarantine, in the loneliness of social distancing, in the messy kitchen or the dusty living room. He is waiting to talk with you, are you listening?
