’Tis the season of window rattling, tree blowing, rain soaking summer storms. Every afternoon plans are made only by checking the sky and the Weather Channel to see if there is an impending frog strangler. One morning, after a particularly stormy evening before, I looked out my window to see this little hummingbird sitting happily on his guarding perch over his feeder…I say his feeder, because he is a tad protective of his favorite dining establishment.
As I watched him, I wondered where and how he had weathered such a severe storm. Doing a little internet research revealed this interesting info from www.perkypet.com about these little dynamos:
Hummingbirds and hurricanes have been intertwined for hundreds of thousands of years. When bad weather hits, hummers hunker down as tightly as they can in the most sheltered place they can find, often in dense vegetation on the downwind side of a tree trunk. Their feet are very strong and can hold onto a twig very tightly when the wind blows.
There’s more scientific information about how, in the heaviest rain, they can beat their wings even faster than when feeding, to distribute the water on their feathers so they will not be weighted down.
Put all of the hummingbird facts together and we come up with an amazingly protected little critter, even in the face of the fiercest storm. What a great picture of the Creator’s creativity and wisdom, wiring even the smallest of creatures to survive in the most challenging circumstances.
Just like our winged friends, we are not immune to storms in our lives. Beyond the raining, thundering kind, are the life storms that rock our world and threaten our grip. There are so many references to the Father’s provision for us in these storms. King David spoke from his heart in Psalm 17:8 when he said “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings…”
Remember in Matthew 8 when Jesus calmed the storm and some very frightened disciples? So here’s our storm plan, found in Psalm 57:1: “… for in You my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”
If you are in a storm, it will not last forever! God’s wings are big…so just scoot over, because there is plenty of room under here for both of us…all of us!
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