Another beautiful day today the Lord has made. Father Sky colored his sky blue, sketched with fluffy white clouds. The sun is burning down with Southern summer heat. I perched on the swing this morning watching songbirds on the feeders while I ate my bagel and drank my coffee. I saw a large yellow bellied woodpecker, dressed with a bright red cap, clinging on the peanut butter suet feeder. On the sunflower feeders were the faithful cardinals, the lonely towhee, the doves, the wrens, the purple finches, one catbird, and Mr. Downy Woodpecker. I’ve missed these bird watching moments. There are so many glorious gifts and secrets from God in this wondrous world and the majority of us never have the time to slow down, to look for them, or to see them. The world just spins too fast.

I went outside after supper to sit in the porch swing and enjoy watching the joyous cavalcade of the setting sun. At the twilight hour Mother Nature rendered a magnificent watercolor painting, a feast for my eyes in sky burst colors of rhubarb red and watermelon pink, brush stroked all down the horizon of my street. The surrounding clouds gathered to watch the pageant were painted in pale watercolors of pink and aqua and orange, pulled apart like cotton candy.

The sun had stood earlier, balanced and bright white, beaming on the crest of the horizon, waiting for Father Sky to take her hand and escort her down the pageant runway. She was dressed in a formal gown of sterling silver taffeta, long white gloves pulled up her arms, diamond tiara on her head, glass slippers on her feet. Father Sky was dressed in a gray linen suit with watermelon colored pocket square, a diamond stick pen holding his rhubarb plaid tie in place. His highly polished black wingtip shoes caught the sun’s rays with each footstep. They made a handsome couple as they began their walk down the horizon, a benediction to the day’s light.

Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight and the twilight came smoothly on the echoes of faint birdsongs, sighing softly as the kaleidoscope of the sunsets’ colors faded away into the quiet of the night. Father Sky cleared the clouds away on the velvet darkness of the night sky and hung the moon and the twinkling stars to guide the night travelers. The day has gone to sleep and the night wakes in all its glory.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “For each trial, the strength to carry on. For each storm cloud, a rainbow. For each shadow, the sun. For each parting, sweet memories when sorrow is done.” I think Emerson has written some beautiful thought provoking quotes.

God gives us the strength to carry on when our world gets dark and we’re always promised a glorious rainbow after the storms. And our memories of loved ones, such wonderful gifts from God. I’m praying the families of the children lost in the flood can be comforted by the memories of their beautiful children. Isaiah 41:13 states, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Please God give these families the strength to weather their horrific storms.

We’re never promised a tomorrow. We need to live with purpose and value each day God gifts us. Life is a gift. Never take it for granted.

“Life is a gift. As sweet as a ripe peach. As precious as a gilded jewel.” — Lucien LaCroix