It has been an interesting week filled with many activities that seemed to have nothing in common that yet let me see God in them all. Since this is Mother’s Day weekend, my mother and grandmother come to mind—especially this weekend that celebrates mothers everywhere. Both my mother and her mother faithfully (mostly) wrote daily diaries. I have been reading through them a few pages at a time. It has been interesting to note how their life is different from my life. And every once in a while, I learn a bit of history that I had not heard before. I also can see how repetitious my grandmother's life was. Modern grandmothers probably would complain of nothing happening! But she was content with her life! We all should learn contentment as we trust God to guide and direct our day to day lives.
My mother and grandmother would have had much to write about if they had lived during my past week. Sadly, I am not a diary keeper. I rely on my memory which has been known to fail. But I can remember short term! Last Sabbath we had time to go in search of the spring flower called Marsh Marigold—the same flower that I shared before. Our search was successful! We were blessed with many of them growing in a wet area and they were flourishing and glowing bright yellow. And seemingly especially for us, there was a beautiful tree covered in lovely pink flowers growing right next to them. It was so beautiful! What a blessing for our Sabbath! And the blessings did not end with just those flowers—often blessings are found in unexpected places. As we were driving along, both of us saw at the same time, a tree with a large group of Golden Oyster mushrooms growing on it. We just had to turn around and take another look at them to make sure we had seen what we thought we saw and noticed a second group nearby. Then we had to turn around again to see if they could go home with us. The parking was in a very dangerous place! We would not be able to park there and get them. Back down to the first turn around and turn around again. More searching for a place to park gave us no place except at an intersection! Garry decided he could walk back the distance to our tasty find and attempt to find a way to climb down into the steep sided ditch to where those mushrooms were—on another steep bank! As he walked around the corner and disappeared from my sight, I wondered what I would do if he had an accident and fell and couldn't get back up since we were in an area of limited phone service. I had to trust God's care that all would be okay. Still, I was a bit concerned. I can't walk, I can't drive—well, maybe I could if I absolutely was forced too. I was glad I didn't have to figure that out as he came back with his treasure, and all was good. Mind at ease once again. And we have had tasty breakfast treats this week! We had a God blessing!
As we continued our trip home, I suddenly noticed something strange. I saw two distant large rounded black shapes along a tree line on the edge of a wooded area and field. To me what I saw looked like----2 bears????? Could it be possible? Of course, I asked that we turn around—again—and go back to see what I had really seen. Taking another look, sure enough, it sure looked like bears! We watched, wishing for our binoculars, until we finally saw movement!! We saw those "bears" lift their wings and flap them! Our "bears" turned out to be turkeys! Good lesson in not believing everything we see and hear. Satan is so good at deceit! Today's world with ways to deceive us that are hard to detect, must keep us on our "toes" to be able to discern truth from false information. We do not want to be fooled by Satan as time grows short for Jesus' soon return. [Those were very large black turkeys!]
When we arrived home, we received news of a graduation party and good things to eat including a wonderful Ice cream cake, and a visit from a cousin we don't see often. Our day ended in fun. Isn't it amazing how God has pleasant surprises for us when we least expect it. I like God planned surprises!
We found ourselves very thankful for the Sabbath. The previous days were stormy, and we had received photos and videos of tornadoes seen by our son and other family, I would have been so scared if I had been there. We are so thankful that they were safe with disaster so close to them. We never know when we are going to need protection by our angels and God. We must stay vigilant at all times and put our trust where safety lies. My trust is with God, but it also is with the doctors. As of this week, I am told by one doctor that I can have hip surgery. That is what I have been working toward. But another doctor says I still need to do more work before I can have the surgery and then he told me of the dangers if I decide to do the surgery this month. Now I have a big decision to make! I have to weigh the pros and cons and needs and wants. The decision can be life changing—especially if I make the wrong one! But life each day is about making decisions. And sometimes we don't make the right one. Only with God's help and trusting Him with our lives can we be sure that we are making the right decisions.
We have been in an area of extreme drought for the last 8 months. Many have been praying for an end to the drought and for getting some rain to end the drought. Well, it's raining now and some of us think it is too wet now and now crops will be planted late and there is a chance of floods. It is hard to do any outdoor jobs. Some would like to plant garden and that is hard to do when it is too wet and rains every day. There is always the old saying—be careful what you ask/pray for! God answers prayer! In between showers, Garry has been working hard at pruning the raspberries. It is a hard job for him because of his balance problems. Persistence has its reward. He can look back and see a job well done and completed. And during the job that was so hard for him, he had time to think about how he could make it easier. God gives us minds to use creatively. We can do good with our creativity, or we can not do good. In this case, he thought of and designed in his mind and then made a brace to use that would help him keep his balance and still be able to do the job. It has been called a 3-legged ladder. It was a good thing—a God provided invention! But how many times do we hear of people using their minds to think up trouble and evil. Those things are not how God intended for us to use the minds he gave us. If we are created in the image of God, then we have to believe that our creative minds should be used for good [God is good!] and not for evil [Satan is the father of deceit and evil].
We have seen several new kitties around our farm. They just seem to be here with no idea of where they came from. Perhaps they wandered here and found free food and a place of safety. Perhaps someone didn't want them. At any rate, they are here but they don't trust us. They don't love us because they don't know that we care. We can't love them because they won't accept us and accept our love. They are like people more than many will admit. Some will not trust God because they don't want to get to know Him. He cannot get close to them because of their distrust and their refusal to get to know Him. Both He and us, want to love but those with no trust are just like the strange cats. They cannot have a life of peace and trust until they allow Him into their lives. This week I saw two news stories that made me sad. I saw pictures of two different dogs being left behind as their owners drove away from the dogs. Cameras caught what happened next. Both dogs looked puzzled and then started to chase after the cars with their owners inside, driving away leaving the dogs behind. The dogs ran and ran trying to reunite with the owners who abandoned them. One was rescued and given a new home—wonderful end to a sad story. The camera saw the other dog catching up with its car and trying, by jumping on the car, desperately to reunite with its owner. It was all so sad. I am so glad that I am assured that God will never abandon us. We are His forever, unless we run away. He will never leave us or abandon us. He waits for us to come home to Him, takes us in and cares for us, will never let us go. He loves us as a mother loves her child, protects, provides, gives gifts, keeps us close to Him.
