I felt like winter was on the way back this morning. The air was cool and damp, the sky overcast in its cloud cover of vanilla and cigar smoke colored clouds, the cement damp from the early raindrops. The feeders were full of birds, the street’s old oaks full of squirrels. Penelope and I walked down the broken side walk happy with the thoughts of another day on this beautiful planet. I saw a few daffodils pushing up through the grass in the yard next door. No one is living there right now so I might have to snitch them when they bloom. I had beautiful daffodils in Alexander City. Should have dug them up before I moved.

As a child wandering around the creek on my street I picked one daffodil from the backyard of one of the houses that backed onto the creek. There was a huge bed of them and I couldn’t resist. To make a long story short, at church the next day the lady that lived there berated me for “stealing” a flower from her yard. I was embarrassed and mortified by her lecture and to this day, I can’t even pick a daffodil from the side of a dirt road in the country without feeling I’m breaking the eighth commandment. I swear I feel hell’s fire on my fanny when I bend over to pick the daffodils so I probably won’t “steal” the daffodils next door.

Took Penelope on a walk after dark, later than usual and the sky was so beautiful. Father Sky’s velvet purple night canvas was covered in thin gray clouds playing tag with Mr. Waxing Gibbous Moon. As I glanced up a hole appeared in the cloud cover and the luminous moon peeped through the window, his moonlight washing the nearby clouds in a raspberry grape. I’ve never seen the clouds washed in color at night, a beautiful but brief gift from God.

Was watching The Rifleman this afternoon and I wrote down a quote from Lucas McCain — “Sometimes a man comes to a fork in the road, stumbles over a rock, and gets on the wrong path.” I think that’s true for a lot of us. We question our faith, walking down our own path without God’s grace, and as we start to stumble our lack of faith brings on the darkness. Now we’re lost wondering how to find the right path that will lead us out of the darkness.

No matter how dark the path were walking, God sees us. He is beside us every step of the way. He is aware of our difficulties. He hears our prayers and sees our tears. We don’t ever have to feel lost on our journey through life. When we come to a fork in the road we should be comforted in the fact that God is with us. God is pointing us in the right direction and walking right beside us. Through our prayers and thanksgiving we can feel God’s presence. We read in Isaiah that “people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of darkness, a light will shine.”

We also need to shine the light of our faith to help others walk in God’s light. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven,” Matthew 5:13. We walk with God by keeping him at the center of our life and obeying his commands. Scripture in Micah 6:8 reads, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

God holds our hands as we walk through life. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” As you walk into the sunshine of God’s love, be thankful if you stumble he’ll catch you by the hand.

“Walking with God down the avenue of prayer we acquire something of His likeness, and unconsciously we become witnesses to others of His beauty and His grace.” — Edward McKendree Bounds