Well, it seems I need to be packing my purple suitcase for Shady Oaks. I was putting up my Wally World pick-up groceries and noticed I didn’t see a canteloupe so I just figured my youngest son had already put it in the refrigerator. This morning I asked him, “You seen my cantaloupe?” He says, “Yes, it’s on the kitchen table.” I walk in there and he hands me a pack of canteloupe seeds! No kidding…been looking forward to eating some canteloupe with my bagel but it’s going to take a little while to grow them. Yesterday, I dialed my daughter-in-law twice in a row by accident as I was putting my phone in my pocket. Twice! She’s probably nervous about me babysitting the children the next time they go on a trip. They say if you think you’re crazy, you’re not crazy. You’re crazy when you don’t know you’re crazy. Now, I know I’m not only crazy but confused. Any of my friends out there ready to go early to Shady Oaks with me?

The vatican of cardinals was all over my yard this morning and this afternoon. The male cardinals, perched on the bare limbs of the old oak, waiting for their turn on the bird feeders, look like glass Christmas ornaments. The female cardinals make me think of patient housewives, dressed in pearls and fawn brown shirtwaist dresses, waiting on their husbands to come home for supper. The fighting purple finches kept the bird symphonies alive and drowned out the happy songs of the chickadees and titmice. The one lone red-winged blackbird just makes himself at home, ignoring the finches and the doves. Maybe he’s a scout for his flock. He comes every afternoon like clock work, you could set your watch by his arrival. Red-winged blackbirds usually travel in tremendous flocks but he’s been the only blackbird visitor for a few days. The blackbirds’ female partners are colored so differently, it’s hard to pair them. The females look like sparrows on a diet of steroids, stocky built brown birds with whitish streaks in their plumage and whitish eye brows. I’ve enjoy watching the birds today.

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it,” Psalm 118:24. The sky was colored in its overcast vanilla today but I studied Father Sky’s sky canvas and found all the beautiful colors he had begun sketching till he rubbed his fingers and blended the colors together to produce the beautiful quilt of an overcast cloud cover. I peeked in his pastel box and looked at the colors he picked. Took a lot of studying to match the pastels he chose, but the color words are as glorious as the vanilla sky he sketched — pewter, seal steel, rhino, pearl river, cool gray, aqua glaze, tangerine turquoise, shrinking violet, orchid mush, and rhapsody. I love matching nature’s colors to a Pantene color chart. Kinda like putting a puzzle together. As I looked at the cloud cover I thought of how the winter blue sky was as wondrous as ever napping behind the blanket of clouds, waiting for the sun’s rays to clear the clouds.

You know, sometimes we wake on a beautiful day but all we see are the burdens of an overcast sky. We can’t see past the layers of clouds to be grateful to have another day on this glorious planet. We’re weighted down by worries that have sucked the wondrous sunshine from our lives. We need to learn to release our burdens and trust God to carry them. Scripture in Psalms says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you. We read in Matthew, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

The Lord also encourages us to support each other during life’s trials. Galatians 6:2-5 states, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Years ago my dearest friend told me to quit worrying about things I could not control. I took those words to heart and hear them every time I start to worry over things I can’t control. Most things we worry about never even come to fruition. Life happens and we have to rely on our faith, our prayers, and God’s grace to travel troublesome paths. But we need to remember, there is always sunshine in the hope of tomorrow. The sky may be overcast and dark clouds might be forming on the horizon but God will put that beautiful rainbow back in our blue sky through our trust in him. We have to have enough faith to believe those clouds will part and the sun will shine. We find that hope and belief through God’s grace. Ecclesiastes 11:7 says, “Sunshine is sweet; it is good to see the light of day.”

Exodus 14:14 says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Scripture says that God will not forsake us and he will never leave us. He promises us hope and strength during difficult times in our lives. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me,” Psalm 23:4.

Walking with God means we’re obedient to his commandments. If we trust in God’s faithfulness and his promises, he will be with us on every step of our journey. When we walk with God on our overcast days, we’ll always walk in the sunshine of his love.

“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; just walk beside me and be my friend.” — Albert Camus