Drove home today from Peachtree City under a beautiful clear blue sky with lots of sun kissed clouds sailing across the horizon. For several miles I drove toward a huge cloud that looked just like a songbird sitting in its nest. The cloud was huge and I could see the birds’ feathered head, its eyes, a seed eating beak, the straw sticking out from around the nest. I drove toward the bird and its nest for miles and miles and it slowly morphed into a white Persian cat. I’m not kidding, it ate the bird. I had a bit of traffic and a red light that blocked my view and when I looked again, I saw a huge smug cat looking down at me. He morphed into an opossum and faded into the horizon. Clear blue skies the rest of the drive home.

Been sitting in the swing on the porch since I got home. The brown magnolia leaves are running down the street in a symphony of percussion, sounding like a bunch of young boys playing tag, their canvas tennis shoes slapping on the concrete pavement. A loud lonely train horn disrupts the magnolia leaf symphony and when all is quiet I can hear the soft wind chime tintinnabulation riding the cool breeze. I’m back home in my church on the swing in the warm Sunday sunshine.

Lot of birds flittering around the feeders and the bird baths. I filled the feeders and put fresh water in the bird baths. Washed out all the snail guts.., yuck! Had a small brown squirrel in my yard this afternoon. Fatty, the resident yard squirrel, kept chasing him back across street several times till Brownie, as I named him, decided to stay in the big magnolia over there. Fatty can be ferocious defending his bird feeder territory. He is the doubled-handed seed eating king of squirrels in my neighborhood. My grandsons and their daddy and their pellet gun have been after a fat squirrel on their bird feeders, too.

Been looking forward to seeing the sun set on my little piece of heaven. The sky has been full of fat rounded cotton ball clouds, all lined up across the sky, straight like soldiers at attention, almost covering the entire blue sky canvas. I was hoping the clouds would stay so Mother Nature could color them with her watercolors but they stretched out into waves and washed away.

At the hour of sunset, the sun, dressed in a silk gown of bright white, took the arm of Father Sky and was escorted down a pale, pink lemonade stage. Mother Nature had brushed stroked the horizon in beautiful pink watercolors that blazed quickly into watermelon fire flames, burning out into a golden twilight, welcoming the day’s gloaming. The shadows of darkness dressed the Earth as Father Sky hurried to wake the moon and the stars to say hello to the nighttime, handsome in its black velvet.

It’s such a feeling of peace to come home after being away. They say home is where the heart is but I think our heart is our home. In the song Home is Where the Heart Is, the last stanza says, “For home is where my heart is and my heart is anywhere you are. Anywhere you are is home.” Our families are our homes and our hearts.

God is our home, too. We’re protected in his arms, safe with his unconditional love. He helps carry our burdens and gives us peace, gives us hope. God says he’s our refuge and our shelter. Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

We are God’s house, too. God dwells in us, in our hearts where we hold our love, our faith, and our thanksgiving for him. God should be a permanent guest in our house, welcomed by our prayers, our words, our actions, and our deeds that honor him. To dwell in his house we should always be conscious of his presence in our lives.

The happiest Christian homes I know are those given to hospitality, where neighbors feel at home, where young people are welcome, where the elderly are respected, where children are loved,” — Billy Graham.