Beautiful Springtime!

Azaleas blooming beside my front porch (2006).

Today is the first official day of spring! Oh, and I do love springtime! Don’t you?

For several weeks now, the flowers have been slowly appearing, bringing such beautiful colors to the landscape. A few hummingbirds have returned to summer in our neighborhood. Soon a dozen or more of them will be zipping around our yard, pausing for a few seconds to sip nectar from one of the three feeders on the deck, and delighting us with their antics and high energy. The temperatures have warmed, compelling us to come out and enjoy the sunshine.

Everything seems to have come alive—filling hearts with hope of better and brighter days. 

In springtime, I delight in seeing what God does with a drab and dirty world and am filled with heightened awareness that He can also create amazing transformations within me—and within you, too!

Daily Nourishment

After finishing my daily “quiet time” one very rainy morning, I looked out the window and watched the little hummingbirds coming and going at the feeder as frequently as they would have on a beautiful day. I thought, They know they HAVE to receive daily nourishment in order to stay alive. No waiting for ideal feeding conditions. No sleeping in. 

Indeed, even one day of being deprived of food can mean death for these tiny creatures who often eat up to three times their body weight every day. They absolutely MUST find nourishment if they are to survive. No excuses. No procrastination.

Likewise, if you and I, dear reader, are to stay spiritually strong, we, too, must do whatever we have to do to find spiritual food and to take it in. Fortunately, we have many “food sources,” among them:

• The Bible
• Sermons
• Hymns
• Books
• Podcasts
• Radio programs
• Audiobooks
• Tapes
• Bible studies
• Prayer
• Magazines
• Devotionals

Let’s feast on one or more of these every day! And throughout the day. No excuses!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Seeking Nourishment

One morning I took my new mirrorless camera out on our deck to photograph hummingbirds. As always, I was awed by the speed of the thumb-sized birds as they zipped, zipped, zipped here and there, sometimes stopping only a second or two to take a quick sip of the homemade nectar (1 part white sugar to 4 parts water) my husband had poured into the feeders. Sometimes the hummingbirds swarmed the feeder--10 or more at a time. At other times, there'd be only one or two feasting at each feeder, which allowed them to sit longer and sip the life-giving fuel their tiny bodies needed. 

According to what I read on several Internet sites, the sugar water is only a part of their daily nutritional needs. They also need the protein that's found in soft-bodied bugs and spiders, which hummers eat throughout the day. Hummingbirds, like all of God’s creatures, instinctively search for the food they need to survive—and thrive. Thus, they spend much of their day in search of nourishment.

Since we humans also know that our bodies need food to sustain life, we, like they, wisely seek it throughout the day. Sadly, we are not that smart when it comes to feeding our souls! We go for days, weeks, or even years without seeking spiritual food, which is found abundantly in God's Word.

His Word not only nourishes our soul but is also sweet to our taste, if we truly love the Lord and His Word. Such sweetness causes us to long for it more than honey (or a delectable dessert). Because we delight in the doctrines of grace, the glorious truths of the Gospel, and the assurances of His love and of His presence with us, we eagerly turn to the Bible again and again. And if we’ve memorized Scripture, then we can have a sweet feast anytime (and anywhere!) we want to.

How sweet are Your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

~Psalm 119:103

Wonder Everywhere! (Haiku)

One day, I decided I'd try my hand at writing Haiku (pronounced high-koo). I went online to learn more about that kind of poetry and to read some examples. I learned that Haiku (short poem) can be written on any theme, BUT must adhere to a strict format of 3 lines and only three lines, each with a specific number of syllables, totaling exactly 17 for the entire poem.

• Line 1 has 5 syllables (no more, no less)
• Line 2 has 7 syllables
• Line 3 has 5 syllables

Haiku poetry originated in Japan, but has been adopted and adapted by poets in many other nations. The poets use sensory language to "paint a word picture" about a poignant experience, a thing of beauty, or an element in nature, etc. Thus, writing Haiku requires poets (and "wanna be" poets like me) to be observant and appreciative of nature and beauty. 

Here are some of my first attempts—and the photos that inspired them. I won’t win any awards with these little poems, but I had fun writing them. I pray the lessons they contain will “speak” to your heart, Dear Reader, as they have to mine.

Wonder everywhere!

Open my eyes, Lord,

that I may see it.

Beautiful stages!

First the bud and then the bloom—

beauty unfolding.

One of many, yes!

Yet, standing out tall and proud

From among the crowd.

Free Indeed!

For a long time, no one dared speak as we looked at the hummingbird sitting stone still in the palm of a woman’s upturned hand. Amazingly, the bird continued to sit there, despite the click, click, click of the cameras in the hands of photographers thrilled to have such an unexpected opportunity to take close-up photos of the tiny bird.Even as we repositioned ourselves to get better shots, the hummingbird remained still, her eyes bright and ever watchful. She appeared calm, despite all she’d been through in the past few minutes.

You see, once she’d been flying free in a beautiful flower garden, zooming from flower to flower to sip delicious nectar. But the moment she decided to fly inside a large bird cage in the middle of the garden, she set in motion an unimaginable chain of events.

Soon large human hands placed a mesh bag over her. They carried her to a nearby table, where she was gently removed from the bag to be inspected and banded. Information about her was recorded on a sheet of paper and a tiny band was placed around one of her legs.

The man who held her then carried her over to a feeder filled with red-colored sugar water and allowed her to drink. All the while, the cameras were click, click, clicking, and the crowd watched with rapt attention.

After she’d satisfied her thirst, the man carried her nearer the crowd to give them a better look at her and to answer the many questions they asked about hummingbirds. After several minutes of that, he walked over to the lady who had been selected, by luck of the draw, to release the hummingbird.The man gently placed it in her hand, giving her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Everyone expected the hummer to fly away instantly, as previous ones had done, but she didn’t. The longer she sat there, the more puzzled everyone became. Finally, someone whispered, “Why doesn’t she fly away?”

“She doesn’t realize she’s free,” the man replied.

That was surprising, since the woman wasn’t preventing the bird from flying away. Her palm was cupped slightly, to encourage the bird to remain, but her fingers in no way confined the bird. She was perfectly free to go, perfectly free to live life as the Creator intended. Yet, she sat there, still feeling trapped when, in reality, she was free.

As I look at the photos I took of the tiny hummer, these words of Jesus come to mind: “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31, 32, New Living Translation, NLT).

Since, as Jesus pointed out, every one of us is (or has been) held captive by sin, we need to know—and live in the light of—this wonderful truth He expressed: “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free” (John 8:36, NLT).

Since “God has purchased our freedom with his blood [shed on the cross] and has forgiven all our sins” (Colossians 1:14, NLT), we who believe in Him are no longer held captive by our sins. We are free indeed to live a good and godly life—as our Creator intended.

©2007 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. To request permission to use, please e-mail her. Additional photos are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnniegaskill/Hummers.