The Hummingbird's Guide to Heart Health

If my love could be represented by a blur, it would be the beating of a hummingbird’s wings. Did you know that my love is the only love that can fly backwards?   ~Jarod Kintz, A Zebra is the Piano of the Animal Kingdom

     My mother’s backyard is frequented by those smallest of birds, the hummingbird.  Mom serves them sweet red nectar that they seem to find delicious.  Hummingbirds love red.  Red flowers.  Red clothing hung out to dry.  Red berries.  They tirelessly search for the sweetest flowers.  The hummingbird needs to eat every ten minutes in order to maintain it's high energy levels.
     Hummingbirds do everything quickly.  Their wings beat at an amazing 50-80 beats per second creating that humming sound!   They dance through the air forward, backwards, and sideways at 55 miles per hour, the same speed that we drive down a highway in our car.  They are even able to hover like tiny helicopters.  It’s fun to relax on the porch and see the tiny acrobats dart and swoop.

      The hummingbird's amazing heart beats about 1,200 times a minute during the day when it is active.  At night, their heart slows to 250 beats per minute.  This drop in heart rate, enables them to survive the night, until they can actively pursue the sweet flowers in the morning light. Without this ability to slow their heart rate and metabolism, a hummingbird would starve to death before the sun came up on a new day.  God has designed them to store just enough energy to survive the night.

     Imagine if our heart beat like the hummingbird’s in it’s desire for a relationship with Jesus.   Imagine that with every beat of our heart, and at 1,200 beats a minute that is humming right along, we could:

 “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  ~Deuteronomy 6:5

      Imagine seeking the words of Christ, written in the red letters of our Bibles as diligently as a hummingbird searches for the red nectar in a garden.  
     And when the night is cold, and our hearts are heavy, to know that God has enabled us to make it to the morning light, when we can actively pursue the sweet aroma, and taste His goodness, in the joy of the new day.
     God is with you always.  He loves you.  I know because a little bird told me so.

Update:  This post was featured by Angie at Womanhood With Purpose!  Thank you so much for the honor.

This post also won the one week space giveaway at Best Post of the Week.  Thank you!