Only two remained.
As I sat on my old antique porch glider, I watched as two hummingbirds fought over the lone feeder, hanging just outside my den window. Just a few days before, I had cleaned all my feeders but only put one back in the backyard. Just a few weeks before, a dozen hummingbirds had created a war zone in the back and side yard as they vied for nectar from the three feeders placed strategically around the yard. Now, everything was changing.
The next day would be the first day of the autumnal equinox. The leaves on our four crepe myrtle trees were already turning and falling to the ground. The blooms had disappeared. Our first cool snap had arrived, dropping nighttime temperatures into the forties. I knew what would happen soon: the hummingbirds would leave. As they had migrated here, the cool temperatures would send them back to southern Florida or Texas, and, if not there, to Mexico or South America. This was the only thing about fall I didn’t enjoy. Everything else, I cherished.
I knew in a few weeks I would need to remove even this final feeder. Otherwise, a few hummers might hang around, get caught by the frigid air, and perish before they made it back to their winter quarters. And I wanted them back next year.
I couldn’t help but think of the promise God made to Noah thousands of years ago: “As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night (Genesis 8:22 NLT).
A promise that came after God had sent the great flood to destroy everything on earth. A promise of change, along with the promise never to send another flood like the one Noah and his family witnessed. Within the promise came a dual promise of change and consistency—two seemingly contradictory things. The seasons would consistently come, but within the seasons, change would happen. Planting and harvesting. Cold and hot. Seasons. Good times and tough times. But times to be grateful for, regardless.
Attributing the changing of the seasons merely to natural law causes us to miss a more important aspect: the sovereignty of God. Natural laws only work because God established them. And while He can operate outside of them—after all, He is God—He usually chooses to show His power through their consistency. The changing of the seasons being one way.
I love the changing of the seasons—especially the change from summer to fall. But I’ve gone through a few changes I didn’t care for. Changes that disrupted and took me to various places—such as the one the hummingbirds undertake each year. People have left me as the hummingbirds will. They moved. I stayed. I moved. They stayed. They died. I lived. They said goodbye to a relationship. I remained.
Although the changes of life take us in many directions, those who follow Christ have one constant to anticipate and to be grateful for: heaven. All roads will one day come back together there. The changing will become changeless. Perfect atmospheric conditions, perfect relationships, perfect bodies, and perfect actions will greet us. But until then, I plan to enjoy…perhaps endure…the changes God sends my way.
Let God teach you how to thank Him through the changes of life?
