Today was a busy, blue sky day. When I walked Penelope for her first walk I noticed the sky was the color of Feltmon Brothers’ baby clothes. So pretty in light blue, a thin layer of pastel white clouds drifting slowly across the horizon. I sat in the swing and pondered on all my chores and cooking I needed to do and I thought to myself, today is another beautiful day in paradise here on earth. Chief used to say we were in heaven here on earth and God’s heaven was just an extension of life on earth with our family and friends who had gone before us. Life would carry on with all our love ones. Guess everybody has their own beliefs of what heaven would be like. I’m thinking heaven is like a joyous family reunion with family and cousins who haven’t seen each other in a few years.

Been cleaning and getting ready for our McMurray Christmas dinner Saturday. I dropped the vacuum cleaner canister on the dining room rug on the way to empty it in the trash cart. Had to sweep and vacuum again! I had left a little pile of tablecloths sitting on the floor while I was searching for a special one in a deep drawer and Penelope had a “tee tee” party on the pile of tablecloths when I went out to the trash cart. When I came back, I picked up the cloths to fold them again and they were wet. Like a dummy I look up to see if I had a leak in the ceiling and it’s not even raining. I know she did it on purpose. She knows something is going on. I think she’s figured out she’s spending the weekend at vet brother’s clinic. She loves the girls that work there and she tolerates an occasional day or two boarding there. She’s rotten cotton!

I was setting a table in the lady den when Mother Nature began directing her sunset pageant. I stood at the window and watched in awe as the painting began. The sun was a blinding white light, strolling across the horizon in her silver sequined gown, shining so brightly I could only get a quick glance before I had to look away. Mother Nature stroked her watercolor brushes across the sky in turquoise and honey gold layers, so prettily highlighting the black tree silhouettes against the golden horizon backdrop. A few thin clouds were floating high and tinted light pink, stretched across the sky in irregular lines. I never get tired of watching this pageantry every night. The Lord blesses us and wakes the night with his beautiful colors. Father Sky hung the moon and pinned stars in the heavens to end the pageant. Wondrous work!

Been thinking about this quote I read yesterday all day today. It’s by Piper Payne. “There is something beautiful about a blank canvas, the nothingness of the beginning that is so so simple and breathtakingly pure. It’s the paint that changes its meaning and the hand that creates the story. Every piece begins the same but in the end they are all uniquely different.”

I can just see that quote applying to us. We’re born a blank canvas, simple and pure. God’s hands create our story with the painting of our life experiences. We’re all uniquely different and that’s the beauty of life. We suffer trials and tribulations that make us strong and wiser. Romans 5:3-4 says, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

God paints the blank canvas of our lives in the colors of his beautiful sunsets. His grace and wisdom are examples to teach us how we should treat others. Our prayers give us courage to face our fears and to weather our sorrows. He offers us peace when we pray and place our worries in his outstretched hands. Our lives are a blank canvas but through God’s love, our colors shine like the beautiful shades of Mother Nature’s sunset paintings.

“We must show our Christian colors if we are to be true to Jesus Christ.” — C. S. Lewis