Last spring my sister took fascinating videos of the baby hummingbird outside her window. We watched Baby’s wings grow stronger as he practiced flapping them, and we watched him turn around in the nest at Mama’s direction. He learned something new every day. This final video was taken the day before he flew away, leaving the nest behind. Though he returned to the yard after that, he never revisited the nest.
My sister wasn’t there with her camera to record his virgin flight, but it’s obvious from this video that it was due to happen any moment. If you don’t see the video, click HERE.
Hummingbirds are amazing creatures. They fly thousands of miles to Mexico and Central America in the winter, and when they return in the spring they come back to the exact same yard they left from. And they don’t fly in groups like most other birds. It’s a solo journey.
We can learn many life lessons by observing Baby’s progress – lessons about teaching by example, the importance of practice, and not jumping out of the nest till your wings are strong enough to carry you. And there are Bible verses to go along with each of these lessons. But as I observed the process, one thought stood out most clearly: this is evidence of God’s creation.
According to Romans 1:20 “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…” Information about how to build a nest, lay eggs, then teach and prepare her baby to fly, was programmed into Mama’s DNA. Baby’s desire to fly was programmed into his, as well as the migration route he will take in a few months. He didn’t learn that route from Mama. She won’t be flying with him.
To think molecular strands of proteins carrying all this information could have come together through some random process – seems to me it takes way more faith to believe that than to believe in God the Creator, who designed the DNA of not only Mama and Baby Hummingbird, but of every living thing, including all of us.
Yes, it takes faith to believe in a God we cannot see. But He has given us plenty of evidence in the world around us. The writer of Hebrews defined faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). I think this hummingbird and her baby provide excellent evidence of the unseen God. What do you think?
