Sometimes there are none.
Sunny days. No shade. Cold winter nights.
Sometimes they are quite ordinary.
Sheets of gray. Nondescript. Hiding what’s behind.
Sometimes they provide interesting backdrops.
To enhance the ordinary.
Sometimes they bring what we need.
To fill creeks. To quench thirst. To water the earth.
Sometimes they’re a gift.
… If we pay attention…
To dazzle. To delight. To make us smile.
Today’s unexpected delight… Today’s gift.
I couldn’t resist posting a few more pictures after taking my camera for a walk on this Christmas Day afternoon.
This is my Father’s world.
Today’s gift.
There’s been a lot of talk about the weather these days. From the west coast to the east and everywhere in between it’s been weather! weather! weather!
Realizing there’s nothing I can do about it, today, I decided rather than talk about the weather it was time to explore some of the effects of the weather.
So, on this very cold, sunny, cloudless day, with a nearby creek swollen by recent rains, I risked frozen fingers to try the ‘five shot’ challenge. Could I take five photos worthy of posting in the blog?
Here’s what I came up with…
Today’s gift.
On Monday’s I mentor a student at a local elementary school through an organization called Kid’s Hope (https://kidshopeusa.org/). Mentors with Kid’s Hope spend an hour a week throughout the school year with one student that may have academic, social or behavioral needs. Among other things, my young student needs help with multiplication facts. Each Monday, we work a bit on multiplication facts as part of our early afternoon mentoring project.
What better way is there to practice multiplication facts than flashcards? You know, on one side of the card there is the problem, say 6 times 3. On the flip side is the answer 6X3 = 18! Success! You get the answer correct and there’s all kinds of wild celebration – high fives, fist bumps. Then you go on to the next one. By the end of the school year we both will know our multiplication facts from 0X0 to 12X12. Woo! Woo!
My problem was, I didn’t have any flashcards. I wanted to find some so we could start practicing those facts in earnest starting next Monday. Ah, but where to find them? The teacher store in town closed years ago and there are no ‘flash card’ stores that I know of. And, since I would like to have them right away, ordering online wouldn’t work.
I can remember days when I’d go with my dad to the lumber yard because we needed some lumber, of course. We’d need a 2×4 or two or some kind of tool to complete a project. Miller Lumber Company, Johnson Howard and South Side Lumber company were all places we might end up looking for … well, lumber or any kind of building supplies. You would never expect to find groceries, for example, at the lumber yard. Flashcards? That would be silly.
The other day, Friday, if you must know, I went to a ‘lumber yard’ looking for some lights to complete a project at home. This store, with its 11% rebate on everything, promised me that I could ‘save big money!’ So that’s where I went.
These days a lumber yard does not just deal in lumber. This place where I can ‘save big money’ sells all kinds of things, yes, even groceries. One week in the freezer section there might be salmon steaks the next week frozen pizza. And of course, you can still buy a hammer or 2X6 piece of select pine.
As I wandered about the store I wasn’t thinking about groceries, hammers or pine boards. I was focused on the lights I need. I knew where they were. I could be in and out of the store in just a few minutes.
And, then, on the bottom shelf of an aisle full of toys (yes, there are toys for sale at this ‘lumber yard’) I spied… yes, you knew this was coming… flashcards!
There they were! Just the tool I needed to help a kid learn his math facts! Excited, I picked them up and added them to my purchases. Excited not only that I ‘saved big money’ with an 11% rebate, but that I now have what I need for Monday’s mentoring session.
Hmmm… so what? Is this really a big deal? There’s really nothing profound here. Except, the ordinary events of a recent Friday is just another example of how the God that loves us takes care of us in all kinds of ways, little and big, every day. And that, more than ‘saving big money’, with an 11% rebate and even finding flashcards is today’s gift.
I planted
Just at the right time
Late spring
A tuber
I waited
It sprouted
Right through the soil
Right on schedule
Green leaves
I waited
It grew
Taller, branching out
Just as predicted
More green
I waited
It thrived
Basking in the sunshine
Blooming time approaching
No buds
I waited
It continued
Growing in good soil, drinking pure water
Doing what dahlias are created to do with
No flower
No bud
No hope?
Yet, I waited
Then
It budded
Round, smooth swelling
In anticipation of
A flower
I waited
I waited
I waited some more
Then
Behind schedule… My schedule?
It bloomed
A single yellow pinwheel of petals
Right on time, the Creator’s time
A gift
Today’s gift. Worth the wait.
This morning’s unexpected delight.
In the beginning when God created, the world contained the substances and processes to produce today’s gray, foggy day. A gray day. God’s creation.
In the beginning when God created all, even the stuff of gray days, he pronounced his creation good. So, I’m not complaining. In the midst of the grayness, if one pays attention, one can find surprising moments of delight, also the work of the Creator.
In the beginning when God created, he had a plan. Today is part of that plan. Gray day or not, pay attention to the gifts the Creator sends your way.
______________ today’s gift, from God the Creator to you.
“… for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.” Song of Songs 2:11-12
Dogwood. Today’s gift.
They visit every year around this time… mostly. Sometimes, not. When they do, it generates smiles and gets noted in the book on their page. So yesterday, totally unexpectedly, the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks returned to the bird feeder. They’ll hang around for a few days and then probably head farther north. It’s a pleasure and delight to welcome them to the neighborhood and enjoy them for a time. Yesterday’s gift. Unexpected delight!
Walk as Children of Light 