They’re a cross between butterflies and birds, the beautiful ballerinas of nature, the glittering aerialists that whirl effortlessly through the summer skies. I’m referring, as you may have guessed, to hummingbirds.
It’s ironic—hummingbirds are the smallest of all bird species, yet they are easily one of the most well-known and celebrated. And no wonder. With almost 350 species extending all the way from southern Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, hummingbirds are a familiar sight across the western hemisphere. And crucially, they perform vital ecological functions, pollinating the flowers they visit and ensuring the health of plant life in their habitats. Beyond that, they garner notoriety for their epic migration patterns, sometimes flying for twenty-four solid hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico (check out my post here for more details). Lastly, they attract attention for their quirky zaniness—their ability to hover and twirl and even fly backwards, all with a body weight less than that of a nickel and wings that can beat up to eighty times per second!
But beyond their role in nature or their intriguing lifestyles or even their airborne acrobatics, hummingbirds are renowned most of all for one very specific reason: their beauty. Hummingbird feathers glimmer with glory, seemingly hand-painted in colors that borrow from every hue of the rainbow and arrange themselves into breathtakingly intricate patterns. And humans have been marveling at this loveliness since the dawn of time. Just listen to some of the names given to hummingbird species for proof: Violet sabrewing. Snowcap. Magenta-throated woodstar. Green violetear. In fact, Jim Burns, a nature writer and photographer, describes the hummingbirds he encountered on a Costa Rican adventure as “tiny, flying jewels.”
And of course, you don’t have to live in Costa Rica to find marvelous specimens of these birds right outside your door. Here in Arkansas in the summer, the signature hummingbird species of the eastern United States—the ruby-throated hummingbird—is visiting my feeders. And no matter how many of these tiny birds I’ve seen, the sun flashing from their emerald backs and stunningly scarlet throats still takes my breath away.
Yes, hummingbirds are uniquely beautiful among God’s feathered creatures. But recently, I discovered something fascinating about these creatures: their glamorous coloring is not their own.
To understand this, it’s necessary to know that bird feathers can receive color in one of two ways: pigmentation or iridescence. The most common of these, pigmentation, is simply natural coloring present within the feather structure, in a manner similar to human hair. Cardinals, jays, goldfinches, and woodpeckers are all examples of boldly colorful birds whose feathers derive their hues from pigmentation.
But hummingbirds receive their color through iridescence, which is a strikingly different process. In iridescence, sunlight interacts with specially designed feathers that act like tiny prisms to absorb, refract, and scatter the light. This accounts for the signature shimmer of hummingbird hues—as the light angle shifts, so too does the feather coloration.
In short, iridescence can’t work without sunlight. In fact, shockingly, a hummingbird examined in a darkened room will show none of its fabulous beauty. Instead, its feathers will be a sad grayish hue, with no hint of color in sight!
A hummingbird cannot be truly lovely until it’s in the light. And isn’t that the same for us all?
The world tells us to “be ourselves” and “live our truths” and “be our kind of beautiful.” But the truth is that if we’re dwelling in the darkness, we can never muster up beauty from inside ourselves. As the hummingbirds teach us, beauty comes from a life lived in interaction with the light. So no matter how many self-help books we read or goals we set or tactics we try, we can’t manufacture iridescence on our own.
Why? Because iridescence requires partnership—the presence of the light. And light, from the dawn of time, is something that humans cannot dredge up or make up or measure up. I’m reminded of the words of Paul: “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18 NIV). Paul—the scholar, the apostle, the writer, the pastor—still recognized that without the light of Christ in his life, he had nothing to offer. Before Jesus, he’d dwelled in a darkness that stole every color from his life, living in joyless legalism that led him to frightening religious extremism and even terrorism. Yet after meeting God, his life was awash with the colors of the gospel.
And it’s not just our beauty that’s borrowed; it’s our design as well. Just as the hummingbirds in the dark are less than what they were created to be, so we can’t walk in our full calling until we’re living in the light. “The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let [Christ] take us over, the more truly ourselves we become,” wrote C. S. Lewis. “Our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. it is no good trying to ‘be myself’ without Him….It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own….Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self” (emphasis mine).
So what does this mean for us?
First, we recognize our own powerlessness. We’re arrogant creatures, aren’t we? We’d like to believe that we can make our lives beautiful all on our own terms—that instead of picking the fruit of the Spirit straight from the tree, we can synthesize it in our own laboratories. But the truth is the same as it was when Isaiah the prophet cried out these words: “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NIV). Nothing we can create or conjure can replace God’s light, and only His light can free us to live the way He intends for us.
Second, we commit to departing from the darkness. We examine the areas of our lives where sin is still secret or where habits hang onto us or where shadows have numbed our joy. And then we take action—not by attempting to banish the darkness ourselves, but by reaching for the hand of the only One Who can.
Next, we actively walk in the light. Just as a hummingbird seeks the sun, so we seek the Son of God, obeying Him by living in His Presence more fully each day. Through prayer, worship, study of Scripture, and active witness to His goodness, we step out from beneath the darkness that once held power and dwell in His light instead.
Lastly, we prepare to show His glory to the world. Just as hummingbirds are renowned across the world for their beauty, so we as believers should astound the watching world by what Christ has done for us. It’s hard not to picture the iridescent glory of a hummingbird when hearing Jesus’ words: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 ESV). When we are truly living in the light, then God’s artistry in our lives is on full display, and the monotone world can’t help but long to live in color for themselves.
“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” I’m thinking of these words of C. S. Lewis now, in the swing of summer, with hummingbirds hovering outside my windows. I think it’s time for us to learn from them—to acknowledge our shortcomings, to seek the Son, and to trade a graveyard-gray existence for the glittering glory of God’s radiance in our lives.
Beautiful!