It is thrilling to watch the pretty little hummingbird darting around in a garden. It dips its long beak into a flower, then flies backward a short distance before zooming off in another direction. The hummingbird can weigh less than a penny, yet one called the Ruby-throated hummingbird sometimes beats its wings 200 times per second!
Have you ever seen a hummingbird’s nest? The female works about a week to build the nest and tightly fasten it to the top of a branch or other place where she thinks it will be safe. She gathers twigs, plant fibers and bits of leaves, carefully forming them into a beautiful cup-shaped nest, held together with spider webs. She lines it with soft thistledown or similar materials and often camouflages the outside with material that looks like the tree she is nesting in, or perhaps with lichen or moss, so it is very hard to see the nest while the chicks are being hatched and raised. In her tiny nest she lays two tiny eggs, about the size of jelly beans. She raises her chicks alone. She may raise several families in one summer.
Hummingbirds are great travelers. North America is only their summer home. They migrate in the fall, the males leaving first and the females and young leaving later. Most fly to Central America or Mexico. The Ruby-throated hummingbird flies across the Gulf of Mexico, normally in under a day, a distance of 500 miles.
No answer has been found to explain why they migrate along the same routes or how they know to return at the exact time that their favorite flowers will be blooming. They journey alone, so they aren’t guided by one another. Even the young migrate on the same route and to the same spot their ancestors used for the winter. We do know that the Creator has given them the ability to make their journey at just the right time, and He directs them over the many miles they travel. Hummingbirds have large brains ... the largest, in fact, of any bird, by percentage of body size. Its brain is 4.2% of its body weight, compared to ours at only 2%. The hummingbird is not a social bird. They normally live alone, fiercely defending their territory.
The Lord watches over the hummingbirds and guides them to their summer and winter homes, but He takes even better care of us. Another good translation of the last part of our opening verse is, “I will counsel [you] with [My] eye upon [you].” He is watching over you tenderly as you go through life, and He gives you the counsel you need, knowing exactly what you need each day. Are you reading the Bible and praying so you can hear His counsel, daily?
Did You Know?
Some hummingbirds can weigh less than a penny.
Messages of God’s Love 11/10/2024