The Humming Bird

© 1999 Don Rogers

Recently our elementary children's choir "Music Makers," experienced a truly teachable moment.

Susan and I had prepared our lesson plans to include an emphasis on service being a sign of greatness in God's Kingdom. Part of her lesson for our first evening together focused on the importance of having clean hands.

Easy to tie into musically with "Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands! "And I wanted the children to learn to be helpers both in the church and to each other, so I also selected "Servant As All" as our theme song. The words go:

"If you want to be great in God's Kingdom,
You gotta be a servant of all...."

Little Seth arrived first, so I immediately put him to work helping me! We went upstairs to the sanctuary of the College to get hymnals for everyone. We discovered a tiny hummingbird had entered the chapel through an opened window and was frantically flying from one end to the other of this large room. Seth and I got a silvery tray from the kitchen and put a little water in it. We added sugar since hummingbirds like sugar-water and set it in the high window, hoping the bird would find it and exit to freedom.

Carrying the hymnals down to our classroom, we found everyone else had arrived and so we began our lesson. As we learned songs about Jesus' kind hands and about being a servant of all, the need to take all of the children back to see the little hummingbird was strong in our minds. So, singing "If you want to be great..." as we marched upstairs, Seth and led a tiny processional of 5-6 children to the sanctuary.

We showed the children the tray of water and explained about the sugar in the water. One of the children realized that the hummingbird was flying from the pink stained-glass windows behind the altar to the red of Jesus' robe in the stained-glass in the balcony. So we gathered up several red Bibles from the pews and laid them around the silver tray. Katie suggested adding red pew pencils because they reflect light.

Having done all we knew to do, we returned to our classroom and our planned activities. I promised the children that we would return five minutes before Music Makers ended to see if the tiny bird had escaped. When we reentered the sanctuary, we didn't see the hummingbird anywhere. I was ready to assume it was gone, when the children shouted in unison, "Beth, you're going to step on it!" It had flown just short of the window, and, exhausted, had dropped to the floor. I carefully put the tray of water on the floor, but the little bird could not hop in. So I gently lifted it up and into the puddle of water. It was too tired to drink on its own.

We decided to return the tray to the window, and I began to slide my little finger through the water, lift it up and put it to the beak of the bird. The tiny thing drank many drops of water this way. I was so intent on what I was doing that I never noticed what the children were doing. Susan later told me that they were standing on the ends of the pews in rapt attention while helping each other get the best view of the little bird. Finally he would drink no more. He just sat there.

We decided to go to the altar and close our first session with a prayer.

Susan and I assured the children that, yes, it is fine to pray for a little hummingbird and any thing else too. I remember that several parents joined us and how sweet the prayers were that night.

But we had to do something about that bird before we left! So I picked up the tray with the bird in it and carried it out to the side yard of the chapel. I asked the children to sit quietly in the grass, but to tell the truth, I didn't know what I was going to do next! As I gently set the tray on the grass, the little hummingbird shot up into the air, wings fluttering, and soared for the nearest hemlock tree. Susan said later that she wished she could have photographed the expressions of joy on the faces of the children ... and me.

The story of the hummingbird has circulated around here and points beyond for several weeks now. Susan and I are sure that there was a Higher Power in charge of our lesson plans that evening!