God Speaks When Eagles Soar

I've always believed that God speaks to us through His creation - and that there are blessings to be found in being close to His creatures. Being aware of and listening to animals and the earth is something to treasure. 


I remember this summer an eagle was spending time over our place and when I went for a walk with my son I found a feather - perfectly placed in my path. I'm so thankful for the reminder that we are never 'unseen' and always watched over.


Isaiah 40:31(NIV) "but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;  they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Saturday was a great day for our family - the three of us together. We enjoyed a fall day playing outside, getting ready for winter as only you can do on a farm or ranch.  I came out of the house, after a juice pit stop, and I did my usual glance at the sky.  Farmers do this.  Bird watchers do this.  Plane watchers and UFO believers do this. 

I almost couldn't believe my eyes, there floating on the thermals were 16 bald eagles.  They were just there, in a cloudless blue fall sky, and we were just there, watching them in awe and in wonder.

We've seen eagles, one or two, perhaps soaring or perhaps perched in a tree.  This many was cause to be speechless.  What can you say when some of God's most wonderful creations come to visit?  

They dove, they played, they soared, they were just like Isaiah said and I felt hope that we one day too be able to soar without tiring and that we could feel God's renewal like thermals under and eagle's wings.

Can you imagine?  Knowing that uplifting and Holy Touch!  When I watched them I felt a part of my soul soaring with them.  I could imagine that Holy Touch!

When we listen to God through His creation we are listening with our whole being.  We are listening to the voice of our Creator.

When we cannot be amazed by His creation in us we can be humbled by His attention to the world around us.  When I feel too small, too dirty, too scarred I can be awed by an eagle, a sparrow, a late October flower or the waggle of a duck walk.  

When I  feel too human and disconnected I can connect with The Source and feel His loving touch.  I can come from The Word and see Him in the natural world.  It is His creation after all - shouldn't we enjoy, cherish and care for it too?

Faith As A Little Child

My little boy loves his Grandpa Ed and they are really good friends.  His best pal has been in the hospital for two weeks and almost daily we go visit. 


Every day, every time we are there, that little boy folds his hands, closes his eyes and surrenders his Grandpa to God.  For healing and for care. This is a boy who drives monster trucks on the blankets, he is curious about people in other rooms and when he is done praying he gently puts his hand on his Grandpa's heart and says, "I love you Grandpa"


When the man in the next bed was in pain he wanted to tell a nurse.  When the nurses were working hard he asked me to take him to get them some treats and when he gets very tired he cries and we pray together.


I am humbled by the generous and faithful heart of my small son.  

Luke 18:17 (New King James Version)  "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."

Oh how I want to be faithful like him!  I love his faith and I love his spirit and he teaches me every day that we can play, we can cry, we can laugh and we can pray. 

We can come to God as His children and give to Him those things which are not ours  to care for, handle or do.  As a (alleged) grown up I sometimes feel like I've lost that connection to the faith of a child we are told to have.

Have you ever noticed that small things matter so much to God?

Child faith, mustard seed faith, sparrow faith - if things as small as that matter a great deal to God then shouldn't they also matter a great deal to us?  

Just throwing that out for you to think about - what if it isn't all about the organized, neat and tidy faith we trot out to Church on Sunday?  

What if it is the muddy knees, finger paint covered, cookie eating, simple praying and totally believing-without-a-doubt little things make a big difference?  What if it really is a smile or a sandwich?  What if it really is a touch and a prayer in line at the store or at a red light?  What if it is getting a little bit of thankful in your joy instead of shushing or tidying or making things look pretty?

What if it is more pretty leaves and wild sunsets?  What if it is more giggles and singing prayers and less proof, arguments and 'being grown up'?

Jesus welcomed the children to Him and not just because He had a lesson to teach, I believe that He needed some skinned knees and grassy stained elbows, He needed some giggles and tickles, He needed a broken toy or a broken heart.  Jesus welcomed children because He knew the importance of the small in a big world, He knew the value of the little in a world where 'big' and 'grown up' were too important.  He valued the lambs, even as the rams rattled their horns and stomped their importance to the world.

I pray every day, sometimes many times a day, that I can be worthy of the honour and blessing that this gift of a child of God is.  I am grateful  for my miracle and each lesson we teach each other blesses us. 

Enjoy the little things today, laugh more, giggle  in the store, make faces at  the dog and when you need to talk to God, go to Him as a child to a beloved and trusted parent.  

Even if you never had a human parent who was beloved and trusted, God is always there and no matter how big the problem is God is bigger, His love stronger and don't forget He remembers the little things like children, sparrows and mustard seeds!

Holey Leaves...

...and today I'll be posting at (in)courage for my first guest post...

Be well and be brightly blessed, see you back here for Songs on Sunday...

Emma's Angels, wire sculpture by Shanyn

Whatever You Do...

Colossians 3:23-24 (GNT) says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people. Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve." 

How can we apply this verse in our lives today?

It hasn't been an easy week with my work.  It hasn't been an easy few weeks with the volunteer work I love.  There have been challenges and then some, one right after another.  I was feeling very grouchy about working for the man when there were other things I'd really rather be doing.

I don't mean things were that bad with everything, but it seemed to spiral into arguments, tears, stress, frustration and discord.  The more I stressed about earthly things the less I was looking at my heavenly blessings, the loving abundance that is in my life from moment to moment.

I started thinking like this sign,  NO THROUGH ROAD and I forgot that with God it can be transformed into merely a NO THROUGH ROAD.  

The rough road  I can, with God navigate.  After all it isn't closed, it isn't impassible, it is just rough.  

How wondrous is our God that He can take a road marked NO THROUGH ROAD and transform it into a merely rough road.  Certainly it will have pot holes, soft shoulders, ditches that are steep and debris filled.  Most likely it will have breakdowns and meltdowns, storms and flash floods.  It will be steep and curved, it will be bumpy and flat.  It will be rough but not impassible!

Rough roads are custom made to bring us closer to God. They are the path to understanding that we serve something greater and that when the signs say, NO THROUGH ROAD, God has the spray can to change four letters.  

While I was seriously hating doing the work that was in front of me, I was spending a lot of my energy forging ahead with not thought as to how I could be using this for the Glory of God.  My job, (pending contract renewal), is not one you would think of as Kingdom Building but it is one where I can speak for the other members of His Creation and make sure they are not forgotten.  

The little tasks of spreadsheets, sweeping floors, calling and emailing can all serve God if I am willing to let go of my determination to be facing a NO THROUGH ROAD sign.  The big jobs, the tasks I cannot imagine getting done are also for His Glory.  

How else could I do even a single thing?  I know I could not.  I would sit down before my closed, dead end road and quit.  I would stop.  Without my faith, without His Grace I would have nothing. I would lose it all because I am not serving the Source when I serve my own self.  When I feed my fears, when I feed my superiority, when I feed my pride, I would fight those I love, I would destroy what is entrusted to me.  Through Him alone am I able to seek to serve Him in all I do.

I have to go hang out the laundry, let the September breezes and the sun dry the bedding...and I'll be doing it with a lighter heart and a serving spirit because I am not doing it for me or because I have to but because caring for my family is one way I can serve my Lord.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Prayer of Saint Francis


Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master,grant that I may not 
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.


Amen.

This is one of my all time favorite prayers, it lifts me and reminds me of the Grace of God in our lives.  


Be well and be brightly blessed, always and in all ways...

I am grateful to God...

"I am grateful to God ... when I remember you." -- 2 Timothy 1:3

Who are you grateful for?  Who makes you thank God for their presence in your life?

When we say our prayers we say, "Thank you God for________."

When I lay down at night I try to remember people in my prayers, and I remember why I am grateful for them.  

They bring me laughter

They pray with me.

They are friends from afar whom I've never gotten to hug, yet.

They are family who should be closer.

They are new friends, old friends and friends barely met.

They are the kind strangers and angels.

They are scar givers, wound healers, life changers and squeegee boys.

Thank you God, for all who read this far, and start to think of those whom they, too, are grateful.  Find in us a worthy heart to see, feel and be thankful for the things you give us daily.

Share with us, those whom you are grateful for today, so that we too may thank God for their presence in your life and through that in ours.

Be well and be brightly blessed, always and in all ways...and I'm grateful for YOU!

What I Learned From Ducks...

Yes you read the title correctly, What I learned from ducks, and let me tell you I've learned a LOT from our ducks. About faith, about trust, about knowing where your care, food and safety comes from and about knowing someone, SOMEONE is always looking out for you!

We got our ducks from a friend, and they have lived in our barn and they have also lived in their penned area that we made for them.  These are ducks, they do duck things, like eat bugs and weeds, play in the mud, splash in the water and quack.  They are also created by God's Hand, and have things for us to learn from them.

Scoffing yet?  Thinking I've gone off on an extended tour of the back forty?  Stay with me and see where we go.

God created ducks to do jobs - we can agree on this.

What do ducks usually do, as my son would ask, and I would say: they swim, fly, eat bugs, eat weeds, quack, and hang about in a flock.

What do people usually do: we can do things like swim, eat, play, 'quack' and hang out together.  All of this is true...but one thing our ducks have over us is this they never question who calls their name.

They always trust that the voice calling, "duck duck" is the one who provides, loves, shelters, cares and protects them.  They don't question it, they don't snuggle down at night and wonder if we are real.  They don't doubt!

When I'm a bit late coming out they are waiting, when the dogs run up to the fence and stick their faces up in the ducks faces what happens?  Ducks test, ducks taste!  The ducks meet the dogs head on - face to face.  They nose each other, they open beaks to taste and they then nip the dogs because they know the dogs are not who cares for them, feeds them and shelters them.  The jobs of the dogs are to watch the ducks.  The ducks know this.

The ducks play in the water, they play in safe abandon because they trust our presence even when they cannot see it.  Even our lovely blind Runner duck learned to come to my hand for special care.  These are not the geniuses of the animal world but we can learn a lot from their faith.

God tells us to trust HIM for our food, our shelter, our care and our protection.

God tells us to trust HIM to love us, care for us and protect us.

How little is my faith, a thinking child of God, that I would question that, doubt that and wonder at that...

My little ducks are teaching me daily about faith, just as our rescue animals teach me daily about seeing more than the surface, seeking God's gifts and grace  and they all teach me about unconditional love and more importantly they teach me about forgiveness.  I know a closer walk with God because of my daily contact with His Creation.

What are your animals teaching you today about God's love?