A Penny's Weight

by reginald daniel

She arrived July 13 around noon. Came all the way from Mexico. Glad she came home. After all, she was born here. Born blind & totally naked, from an egg smaller than a jellybean, she could fly out of her tiny nest in three weeks. By the end of summer, the iridescent little beauty can fly 500 miles straight across the Gulf of Mexico, heart beating 1250/min. and wings flapping to the tune of 70-80 times/sec.

How do you suppose this fine-feathered blip, weighing less than a penny, drums up the energy to fly so far? How does she know where she is going? When she takes off for Mexico, she goes to a place where she has never been. Takes a lot of faith to be an atheist.

Edith and I sat on our deck many Saturday mornings each summer and enjoyed to the hilt these blue-green marvels. We had an unofficial contest to see who could see the first hummer of the season. They would come and dart all around us, as they flashed in and out of the many flowers we placed on our deck to attract them. Hummingbirds are friendly, fearless, and bold. So bold that they will come right up to you and even try to drink from your coffee cup if you don't move.

The first hummingbird sighting of the season competition has ended. But the memories linger. Now the smiles are accompanied by salty sweet tears that momentarily blur the birds.

There have been several blurrings in my heart during the last 9 1/2 months. Eventually many of the blurs become more clear. But not all.

This hummingbird observation strangely reminds me of the biblical story of Eliezer's looking for a bride for Isaac. He asked Rebekah to believe in a man she had never seen and to go to a place where she had never been. Eliezer would guide her---because he knew the way. Apparently God puts something into a hummingbird's heart and mind that leads her to that previously unvisited home.

Edith believed in a Man she had never met. She went to a place where she had never been. God put Someone in her heart that led her to that unvisited forever home. God has a perfect, unflawed GPS. The many gifts that Isaac had sent to Rebekah helped her believe in the man who would take her as his bride. God's gifts to Edith helped her to believe and to make the journey.

The One Who is preparing a place for us has given us many gifts, too. One of those gifts was Edith. His best gift is Himself.

For me, Edith is in a winter home, but for Edith she is in an eternal springtime. An indescribable paradise. Do you suppose there are birds in paradise?

BTW, a hummingbird can flap its wings 200/sec. in a courtship dive. Sorta like the twinkling of an eye.