Have you ever had a déjà vu moment in the middle of nowhere? I did the other week at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christians Writers Conference. During a class break I escaped to an outdoor picnic table for a quick banana snack and suddenly gained three visitors. Two mockingbirds landed on a nearby birdfeeder at the same time then began a squabble over it. Feathers didn’t fly, but the amount of chest-bumping and shrieking suggested considerable boasting and name-calling. Of course, they must’ve been males because we all know Southern females would never fight over something healthy like seeds and nuts. No, ma’am, that feeder would have to be packed with triple chocolate-dipped fudge truffles to get a ruffled feather out of me.
Anyway, while the birds were huffing and puffing, just a few feet away a female hummingbird paid them no mind as she did a drive-through on an adjacent mountain laurel bush. That gal zoomed in and out of blooms like my mother used to drive her tank of a Buick ninety-miles-per-hour rain or shine. And to Momma’s credit and our family’s amazement, never once did that lead-footed white-haired woman get a speeding ticket, although she was pulled over one time and given a warning—which she heeded all of two minutes until she was over the next hill and out of the trooper’s view, a fact verified by her grandsons riding with her.
So what’s my point? The Lord watches out for strutting dudes and little old ladies? No, he provides for all of us. “Consider the birds . . .” he tells us in Luke 12. “They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” About the flowers, he says, “They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon is all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you . . .”
Now it’s your turn to share a funny animal or bird story . . . or tales of little old lady speedsters. (Déjà vu, about a year ago I posted about the antics of two mockingbirds and a hummingbird around my home birdfeeder and daylilies. You think they followed me to North Carolina?)
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