I stalked the hummingbirds for days trying to get a picture.
Me with my point and click trying to get one good photo of
those lightning fast wings before they head off for points south.
I wondered, where do
they go in the winter?
Far away, I found out―southern Mexico and Panama.
When they get ready to migrate back in the spring they’ll
stop off at the northern Yucatan coast to gas up on insects and spiders.
They’ll need that extra layer of fat when they leave in the early dawn to begin
a nearly 500 mile nonstop flight, which takes around twenty hours to complete.
According to this source, they may weigh six grams when they start and only 2.5
when they land on the Gulf Coast.
Those teeny tiny little creatures that zip around my feeder
are right now getting ready to launch on a big excursion. Interestingly, in the
fall, more cruise the Gulf Coast back to their winter grounds than in the
spring, but some still make the big trip.
And if they live an estimated nine years, they may make a
dozen and a half of these trips. Alone. Hummers don’t fly in groups although
they may join other flocks of migrating birds.
I sat for a long time wondering how God doesn’t worry over
these little fellas doing such seemingly impossible things. I have to confess
if I were a mama hummingbird, I’d be fretting my head off over an offspring
facing such a challenge. “Did you eat enough spiders?” I’d ask. “Let me feel
your middle to see if it’s fat enough.” “See if you can find an oil rig to land
on for awhile. You know you need your rest.” Better yet. “Forget flying the
Gulf, just cruise the coast up to North America. Lots of places to stop off for
a fly snack.”
But God doesn’t fret. That’s because he knows how he created
them. He knows they can do it.
When we face the impossible, He doesn’t worry. He knows how
he made us, too, and that we are by his power totally equipped to face the seeming five hundred
mile treks before us.
“Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make
it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:13 The
Message).