You may not be able to see him/her well, but turn the volume up and you will hear the hummingbird barking at me. It’s the first one in our area that I’ve heard bark. I didn’t know that they did that until Steve Cook told me about it.

It was his last trip stateside from his Jericho mission field, just weeks before God took him. Several weeks after he went back home, I got the news of his passing while I was at a Heart Quest women’s retreat. It was our first morning and we were about to head out for a day of solitude with God in prayer. Johnny offered to come get me so I could tend to Steve’s business, but Steve had been so excited when he heard I was going on that retreat, I knew he would want me to stay.

Several months before that retreat, I developed a horrid case of sciatica. It was so bad, I was leaning heavy on a cane to walk. Temptation came to cancel my trip or postpone to another, but I knew I was to go, and Johnny felt so too, so he ordered a scooter for me to use on our wilderness day. On that day, heavy hearted over Steve and sad that I had to stay close for the restroom and couldn’t head out into the land, I parked under a huge tree to get into the study for our day and to pray.

Talking to Father about being sad I couldn’t get out and see some of the wildlife we were told about, I heard a huge bee flying at the back of my head. Sitting very still, I prayed it would go on, which it did. Shortly I heard it again, up and to the left of me, but I ignored it and continued praying.

Suddenly it started barking at me! Looking up at “the bee”, I found instead the biggest, pinkest hummingbird I believe I have ever seen. He kept barking as if he was telling me something very important. I just know he was saying how pretty my bright, pink hat was and how much he liked it, but that it wasn’t very nice of me to wear something that looked so flower like and trick him that way. Message received, he flew away.

Remembering our conversation when I learned that they barked from Steve and hearing that for myself on the day we learned of Steve’s passing was like a hug of comfort from heaven. Now, to hear it again here at home on a day I had to comfort my husband as his last day of work has arrived, don’t you just know that Jesus (with Steve nearby giving his “amen” to every word) is interceding on our behalf and standing with us as we head into a major change of life. God is good all the time, and today I give Him glory for a little hug from heaven.

By the way, at the end of that retreat, I went home swinging that cane as I walked. That is another story of God’s work in life.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.” (2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-7 NASB)