First 5-Minute Vacation

In the last post, I dared anyone reading all the way to the end to take two "five-minute vacations" each day and see how God might be revealed in the world around them. I decided to take my own challenge and the first tiny miracle happened in an accidental vacation this morning on the porch.

I had gone out to sit in the cool of the morning to finish reading "The Shack" in preparation for the last discussion session on Monday evening. (Yes, group members, I found my copy of the book - riding around safely in the back seat of my car!) I had settled into my chair, book in one hand, pink high-lighter in the other when I heard a familiar and welcome sound - hummingbird wings. I almost always hear the hummers before I see them and once you've heard the distinctive whirring of their wings, you always know when one's around. So I heard the hummingbird and turned toward the feeder hanging from the edge of the porch's roof a few feet away. Sure enough, a little female was making her way from one tube to the next, finally settling on the one that was most full for a quick sip of breakfast. She didn't stay long, but I did notice that each of the three nectar tubes had a bright, sparkling drop at its bottom edge. Glistening in the sunshine, a single drop of nectar seemed to be leaking out of each. I suppose it might have been left-over dew, but my thought at the time was that it must be a drop of nectar.

I noticed each shimmering drop and went back to my book. Another whirring of wings and another hummer had some breakfast. A page or two later, another whirring and this time, my 5-minute vacation miracle: this hummer collected each of the single drops of nectar trying to drip off the edge of each tube.

I couldn't see the hummers tongue as it flicked off the sugary droplet. I didn't even really see the drop disappear, not really. But at the end of each tube, the sparkle dimmed and winked out before the hummer moved to the next and the next. The sparkle just went out...and that was my evidence that this hummer had an appetizer of three drops before settling it to sip at one of the tubes.

That was cool - but here's the miracle, the insight that goes with it: We often don't see what God is doing, directly, we only see the evidence. OK - maybe we all knew that already, but it was an awesome reminder for me! Our human sense just aren't tuned in to the spiritual realm most of the time, and we miss an awful lot of what God's doing. And even if we could see it, or know we ARE watching something amazing, sometimes it's just too...too...Godly to catch. Just like the flicking of a hummingbird tongue is too small and too fast for me to see from 5 feet away, some of what God does is so fast and so smooth that - even when we know we're seeing something happen - we don't actually see the action. We have to wait for the evidence. The sparkle has to wink out. The empty cupcake paper has to show up in the trash.

We may go through all of our lives never being able to catch God doing something, but the evidence is all around us. It's in the hummingbird nectar disappearing; in the rice sized shells making it to the shore without breaking; in hearts healing. What's your evidence that the dominion of God has come near? What's your evidence that the hand of God has touched you? And how's your 5-minute vacation challenge coming along? It's Saturday - maybe this would be a good day to start...for there are blessings waiting in something as simple as a bird at a feeder!