In the Service of Hummingbirds

As I was studying a message by President Eyring, which I plan to share later, I decided to take a brief pause and get a bowl of cereal. Then Mom told me that our hummingbird feeder was out of food and she asked me if I could refill it. I felt that I was busy, that I needed to work on my blog post, that the hummingbirds could wait. As I prayed over my breakfast cereal, I asked God to bless the hummingbirds that they wouldn't get too hungry while I worked on my blog. When the prayer was over, I heard a voice in my head saying "I'll bless them through you." So I got up and filled the feeder.

I don't know who may need to hear a message on service today; possibly me more than any of you, but a vaguely recall the idea of service coming up in my mind earlier this morning. Maybe God's trying to tell me something. Maybe He wants to tell all of us something.

I have a few favorite quotes and sayings about service. One of them comes from President Spencer W. Kimball, "God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs." The idea is that if God frequently blesses us through the service of others, it would make sense for Him to want to bless others through us. But however righteous His motivations may be, He will never take away our agency. It doesn't matter how badly others may need our help or how much they deserve it, God will not force us to help them. We need to make that choice ourselves.

Another good service message came from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf in April 2010. A statue of Jesus Christ had been destroyed in World War II. Most of the statue was able to be restored, but the hands were irreparable. Rather than having a sculptor make new hands for the statue, the townspeople left the statue hands-free, but placed a sign under it, reading: "You are my hands." Christ is not on Earth personally. At least, not anymore. In His stead, He asks us to serve others as He would serve them. He asks us to be His hands, so to speak, in uplifting others and blessing them. True, we cannot do all the things that Christ could do when He was here, but we can do all the things that we can do, and that is what He truly asks of us.

Having talked about God and Jesus Christ, and how they want us to serve others, it's only fair that I also throw in a paragraph about the Holy Ghost. He doesn't have hands, either. He's just a spirit. He can comfort and inspire others Himself, but He's very limited in the kinds of things He can do. Mostly, though, He tries to inspire us. It was through Him that I got the message about blessing hummingbirds. It was through Him that the subject of service came up in the first place (even though I nearly ignored it). In fact, it's through Him that I get all of the messages I share. In my opinion, the Holy Spirit rarely gets as much credit as He deserves for all He does. But He doesn't want 'credit,' does He? Jesus didn't. Jesus said that all the glory should go to the Father. All Jesus wants, and (my guess) all the Spirit wants is for us to listen to Them. And not just to listen, but to do what They ask.

They, meaning the entire Godhead, want us to serve others. It's through us that They bless others. We are Their hands. They encourage us to act. And then They bless us for doing so. It's not always easy to serve others, but it isn't always hard, either. If you look for opportunities to serve, They'll help you find them, and if you take advantage of those opportunities, They'll make it worth your while.