The hummingbird
By Keith Williamson Special to the Sentinel

Having a few minutes to spare before a morning appointment, I recently pulled up in my church's parking lot to spend a few minutes praying and reading the Bible. I parked in front of a large vine of some type that was loaded with blooms. The vine had completely covered some small trees it was wrapped around.

Then I noticed the vine was moving. A lot of bumble bees were working the blooms, but I knew they could not have been the reason for the movement I saw.

Then I saw the culprit. The largest hummingbird I have ever seen was also working the blooms. I had to look closely to see him. He spent very little time on any individual bloom but kept going from bloom to bloom. He was working very hard.

I went back the next day to see if he was still there. I saw him after a couple of minutes and he was still on the job.

As I considered the hummingbird, I began to relate it to reading the Bible. Bible readers should be like that hummingbird working hard, going from place to place and never stopping.

Acouple of days later I didn't see him and was disappointed. I tried to relate not seeing him in some way to reading the Bible. Maybe he had found some different flowers like a Bible reader may choose another translation. I quickly dismissed this farfetched idea as total nonsense. For whatever reason, the hummingbird was gone.

A few days later, I again returned to the vine. The blossoms were beginning to show their age. The bees were still there, but the hummingbird was nowhere to be seen. Again disappointed, I focused my attention on the Bible.

It wasn t long before I caught the shaking of the vine out of the corner of my eye. Looking up and around, I again found my little flying friend. I got a huge smile on my face. It was like being reunited with a long lost friend.

After a couple of moments of blossom pursuit, he turned around, stared directly at me for about three seconds, and was gone.

This time I did not miss the lesson God was teaching me through the hummingbird. The joy I felt in again seeing the hummingbird is nothing compared to the joy God gets when one of his children again wants to spend time with him.

Have you spent time with God and made him happy today?