The real thing is so much better…

I am a twice-blessed woman! Flame-flowered aloes are indigenous to the Western Cape where we have a holiday home, and I love the colorful southern sunbirds who come to feast in winter, their curved beaks perfectly shaped to probe the red trumpets.

Here in Florida, we have ruby-throated hummingbirds, and following a friend's suggestion, we hung a feeder (plastic with red pretend flowers)just outside the screened porch soon after we arrived on the river. These jeweled miracles often delighted us, their incredibly slim, long beaks drinking the feeder dry as we enjoyed late afternoon tea and a cookie, but last season a sweet-toothed raccoon destroyed it 😊. Since we love both butterflies and hummingbirds, I asked our gardener to fill the flower bed outside my kitchen window with something that would appeal to both bird and butterfly.

I stand at my sink many times a day, and now, every time I do, I look out on a smorgasbord of scarlet temptation! My fire bush has done extraordinarily well, and hummingbirds are there many times a day, not drinking once and going, but ‘grazing’ back and forth. They are also extremely territorial, so I have witnessed amazing acrobatic air battles many times. They even divebomb poor bumblebees hopefully wandering through the clusters of flowers. 😊

Once again, I am shown that God’s way is so much better than man’s invention! He has designed a balance to everything in His Creation. If only we have eyes to see and a heart to understand, we can become part of the divine pattern. Instead, we try to capture it (I dislike zoos and bird cages for this reason) or bend it to our own willful nature in some way.

“He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out(comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.” Eccl. 3:11

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