This morning when I let the dog out, there was a hummingbird at the empty feeder, but thank goodness, he wasn’t going to starve, since I have trumpet plant, hibiscus, rose of Sharon, and other plants that hummingbirds seem to like.
I have two hummingbird feeders in the backyard, the standard red and clear plastic kind that you fill with sugar water or the formula that you buy and mix with water.
Sometimes I’m really negligent and don’t get the feeders filled back up. I’ve seen hummingbirds come to my empty feeders, and then whiz away, apparently to some other yard, bypassing all the good plants in my yard.
This is just like us, attracted to the bright flashing lights and brilliant colors of the world, looking for something to feed our souls, our emotions, our minds. We pass right over the good things that God has provided to get to the cheap thrills that soon fade away.
When we get up close and stop long enough to think, we realize that the “feeder” is empty.
The prodigal son traveled afar off from his father, and left his real self, his true self back home.
He followed the bright lights and brilliant colors of the world looking for fun. He enjoyed wine, women, and song, spent all his inheritance, ended up living on the streets.
He went to an empty feeder, looking for something to feed his soul, but all he found was dry corn husks that the farmer fed the pigs.
“But when he came to himself.” Luke 15:13 NKJV.
He realized who he really was, the son of the master of the house, whose very servants ate better than the he had in the pigpen. He returned to himself and he went back to his father, asking to be a servant. Oh, but his father had better things planned for him than that. He welcomed him back as his son and held a party in his honor.
The prodigal son returned to the place where the tables were full, where his soul could really be fed. He returned to his father’s house.
Let’s return to our Father God’s house, where the table is full with the good things of God which truly feed our souls.