You think of hummingbirds' diet as pretty much solely nectar,
(or sugar water from the feeders we put out on our front porches).
But a reader once sent a question to a Birds and Blooms magazine:
"Several hummingbirds visit my yard to feed from the flowers and feeders. However, they also seem to relish the ash piles from my paper burner. Why is the ash so popular with these hummingbirds?"
The answer was interesting:
"I suspect the ashes offer a mineral they need for laying eggs.
A birds reproduction cycle often requires special nutrients it must acquire prior to laying eggs."
And so there we have it.
Ashes are essential for reproduction.
If you are looking at the ashes of something in your life, don't think it represents only wasted time, energy, or love.
It also represents something without which there would not be new life.
That is the way things work.
Something has to burn up before the minerals are bio-available.
Something has to die before something else can live.
Plans and wishes and ambitions have to be laid aside before new ones can take their place.
You think you're toting those ashes out of your barrel off somewhere out of sight and out of mind,
and trying to forget the whole stupid mess.
And would you believe it, God's little hummingbird comes and feeds on it.
Ashes are not just ashes.
They contain minerals that nectar and sugar water simply do not have.
Don't plan on being fruitful in the Christian life while only dining on sugar water with red food coloring.
We need an ash pile somewhere, so we may as well face the one in our own backyard with a different attitude.
God has something beautiful that He wants to resurrect out of our ash heap.
Maybe our ashes aren't for us anyway.
Maybe they are for someone else.
Maybe someone else will learn a lesson from our ash heap.
Maybe they will find the strength to go on because they discover we have an ash heap, too,
just like one of theirs.
And, ash heap and all, we just kept humming along.
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