Chapter Three: "The Hummingbird"

This story is entirely true, and as were its predecessors, drawn from my actual life.

 

 

    Some here today may recollect my lesson of some six months ago, which I called, "Lessons My Dog Taught Me". The following is similar, in that it was borne not of hours of arduous study, but a single blinding insight, during the course of an actual happening. God gave me a profound lesson in the form of one of His smallest creatures, that is not a bug or a bacterium.

    Many if not most of you know that I work at K-Mart, in the Garden Department. My "office" is a fiberglass structure some 30 feet high. 50 feet wide and nearly 200 feet long. From the inside, even to me, that feels pretty large, especially as it's almost entirely clear. Now, imagine how it must appear to a hummingbird--very much like infinite, I'd bet! But that, of course, is a perception, a delusion.

    The silk, plastic and aluminum flowers parked in rows just inside the door were illusory too, but to the hummingbird, an eight-foot-high stack--or, if using HIS feet, more like a thousand-foot-high stack!--of bougainvillia, hibiscus, and a hundred others must have seemed very like Heaven seems to us: unimaginable riches, endless bounty! What persuaded him to leave the real flowers outside, to fly to the false flowers inside, remains a mystery to me to this day, though. Previous to entering the building, his reality truly WAS infinite, his ability to feed and fly unlimited, but he fell for the the illusion. He made an unwise choice, and he became trapped.

• Was he FORCED in by anyone? NO: he entered voluntarily!
• Was the opportunity, or the reward, all that it at first seemed to be? NO, it was an unsatisfying illusion!
• Was he able to leave? YES, at any time he wished, through either of two wide open doorways!

 

                   BUT HE CHOSE NOT TO!

    How many of us here today have made similarly unwise choices in our lives, based upon the illusory promises of sooner or greater rewards or opportunities, only to discover that we had ensnared ourselves in an unrewarding, inopportune trap?

    This hummingbird flew frantically back and forth across the width of this building as well as up and down its length for over two hours, with NO nourishment. As we all well know, hummingbirds have astonishing metabolisms, and must consume nearly constantly, up to half their body weight daily of pure sugar solution, just to maintain their lives.

    Herein lies another simile between the hummers and ourselves: Has anyone here, from the need to HAVE more or newer stuff, DO more, GO more often, found it necessary to work harder and longer, merely to keep pace? MOST , I suspect! Nobody would expect the hummer to see the obvious sense of flying slower, or even walking, and to fewer flowers, in order to conserve energy. Both Cheryl and I expected the creature to simply fall from the sky at any moment, from sheer starvation, frustration or terror. Fortunately it did not, but has anyone here has a friend or a relative who has quite literally fallen from the sky, as a consequence of their self-imposed prisons, fears and stresses? Please do not misunderstand me; I am NOT saying that it is wrong to work hard, to excel or to acquire. I only wish to remind us that these are prisons of our own making, freely entered, and freely exited. They are NOT needs, they are CHOICES!

    Another aspect of the hummingbird's behavior that I found inexplicable was his refusal to change his flight path or his altitude, even though it must have been apparent that neither of those was producing the desired result, freedom! As mentioned earlier, consistently back and forth, to and fro, and all at a height of around twenty feet!. From the building's eave height he never varied--Why, do you suppose? He had to leave his "comfort zone" in order to ENTER the building--the doors are only eight feet high!--but could not or would not leave it once more, in order to be free? Was he confused by the wall through which he could perceive light, and almost, sort of see through, but NOT fly through? Have you ever been confronted by an invisible barrier, one which offered some of the blessings of freedom, without ever actually delivering any?

    In 1st Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul said, "...for now I see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face..." He was referring to the limited degree to which we are able to know God while in our current physical state. But this minute bird HAD KNOWN perfect, unlimited freedom, and simply could not comprehend the new situation he found himself in!

    Now as I said, this went on for over two hours. We tried every way we could imagine to persuade him out:

• Turn out the lights; it will make the outside seem brighter by comparison
• Turn off the fan--the cold air currents from it might be disorienting to the bird

 

    Finally, I even went over to Pool Supplies, and borrowed a skimmer in an attempt to net him! This point is particularly applicable to my own life. More than a few times, I've erected fiscal prisons for myself that no family member, co-worker or employer could persuade me out of. And more than a few times, I have erected spiritual prisons for myself that no preacher, elder or loved one could dissuade me from. This was not so dissimilar to the hummingbird's conundrum: He could not persuade himself that the flashing, flying blue obstacle a hundred times his size was actually there for his benefit, with his welfare in mind! Rather, it seemed yet one more incomprehensible hazard to avoid, and avoid it he did! And if the skimmer were not frightening enough in its own right, at its base was an enormous red and blue object--me!--that was capable of making the hazard MOBILE! It was a futile effort; how could we have expected him to realize that all these new experiences might be perceived by him as beneficent, and were only concerned with his well-being and even his survival?

    Has God ever tried to help you out of a hopeless situation? Of course He has! But odds are, you did not recognize His efforts to help as such! Even as I was entirely outside the experience of the hummer, so God is largely incomprehensible to US. We, however, have the upper hand, in this battle to understand and gain help, for God has given us an Instruction Manual, covering every conceivable human foible and it's solution from over 6000 years of human history!. In that Manual, the Bible, He tells us everything about Himself that we need, or could grasp: what He does, and does NOT do; what He wants, and does NOT want; what He forgives and CANNOT forgive. We have it in our power, in fact in many of our laps, the means to understand the forces that act upon us, both those than mean us ill, and those that wish to protect us from those, and to rescue us from our self-imposed prisons!

    Now the story DOES have a happy ending. Just let me briefly review what we've covered thus far: We have

• ....a building which seems huge, but which when compared with all outdoors is a minuscule trap;
• ....flowers which look delicious, but offer NO nourishment;
• ....walls which permit light, but NOT hummingbirds to pass;
• ....willingness to accept the lie, but NOT the solution, and
• ....NO comprehension of the Forces attempting to help us!

      But finally we hit upon a solution. I was permitted to use a hummingbird feeder from the store's inventory, in order to lure the dazed creature out. I constructed the device, mixed the solution (with no small amount of spillage involved!), prepared the hangar and placed it near the door. Now here is the single revelatory experience, the "AHA!" moment, when I realized that God had sent me a lesson:

     Many of you, I expect have hummingbird feeders in your yards, do you not? A plastic jar, decorated with plastic flowers, and filled with a thin red solution that meets a hummingbird's every nutritional requirement?

AND THEN THERE WAS JESUS!

 

    For thousands of years, humankind have been entering prisons of their own devising, heedless of the warnings of all about them, and refusing to leave them, despite God's best efforts! But finally God hit on a solution! He would offer them what they craved, what they needed, the only thing that could possibly sustain them:

• He assembled the Vessel, in the form of the Son of a Galilean carpenter;
• He filled that Vessel with a viscous red fluid;
• He permitted the Romans to devise a hangar to hang the Vessel upon;
• He hung it by the door between imprisonment and freedom;
• He allowed the fluid to be spilled;
• He drew our attention to it, first by Roman historians who attended the event, and later by means of the New Testament.

    In a very similar way, that red fructose syrup irresistibly drew the hummingbird to admit his greatest need, toward a place from which he could see freedom. So God has allowed His chosen Vessel to be suspended before that same door, awaiting our admission of our greatest need!

    Who here will be the first to perceive the sustenance only to be had in that red fluid, the blood of Christ?

    Who here will observe the true freedom that lies outside the false prison?

    Who here will be the first to leave his or her comfort zone, to fly down to that hangar, to sup of that blood, to grasp their Eternity, their Infinity that they voluntarily gave up, back?

    Is there anyone here who can see far enough to know the prison for what it is, and the inescapable consequence of it?

   The Romans, the hangar, the spilt blood are all long-gone. But the choice which the hummingbird had, AND TOOK!, is now yours. Are you as smart as a hummingbird?

Reviews

[Shep]

Very compelling argument that has addressed a need to listen and be guided through out history if only we would listen and take what we have learned and practice it in our daily lives.

A very meaning and powerful talk, I really enjoyed reading this book and hope you will come back and add to it. There are many people in the world today that could benefit from reading these powerful lessons and I am one of the many.

[Lee]

My brother, this is a very compelling and spiritually rewarding message. Your illustrations from pets to hummers to us are very correct. I felt a twinge of the Spirit when I came to: And then there was Jesus. What a powerful statement...and a name.
For several years, I was a Gideon speaker, visiting various churches and denominations. I remember the message of getting the Word out and relating how so many others, trapped in their own prisons had come across His Word. Much like you trying to assist the hummer. He didn't know what you were doing, but if he obeyed...he would be free.
I enjoyed this, and I needed another refill and blast of His love. Thank you, Mark. May He bless you. Keep smilin'...we have reason to...Lee

[Ellen Hammond]

You are blessed with an insight to learn from all things it seem and wisely used the hummingbird's plight as a lesson to be learned in our lives. Sometimes, floundering around in what we hoped was a paradise of sorts we don't recognize the trap or even comprehend that we are trapped in a spritual prison of our own choice. But, that invitation to come to the real nourishment by the open door is still there waiting for us to seek it so it can set us free. This is a very thought provoking write, my friend. And being a hummingbirg watcher, I enjoyed it even moreso.