Today was an “I see the moon and the moon sees me” kind of day…so “God bless the moon and God bless me.” The sky was as deep blue as a tropical ocean. The quarter moon was floating high in the blue heavens like a kite on a string being held aloft by an ocean breeze. I saw a glorious museum of cedar waxwings fly through the neighborhood this morning. The waxwings are such pretty birds, their velvet plumage muted in colors of grays and browns and lemon yellows. They wear Lone Ranger black masks, dressed with red tips on their wings, bright bands of yellow feathers on their tails. When they fly, the flock just sails through the heavens like a ship’s sail, undulating and changing directions. There’s a mysterious magical element to their dancing in flight. So beautiful to watch.

Late afternoon a V of geese flew over, lined up perfectly, steadily flapping their large wings, carrying on a conversation of honks. I love the fall’s migrating birds. Their were 27 geese in the V and the odd one was a little fella doing his best to keep up. Whether they stop for a snack or just fly into the sunset, birds thrill me with their beauty.

I noticed tonight when I walked Penelope my old water oak has added some ballerinas. dressed in their yellow tutus, to his high branches. They’ll pirouette down when the wind kisses their cheeks. I love sitting in the swing and watching them spiral gracefully to the ground. I wonder if they try to race the acorns.

Cleaned out my desk drawer looking for a stamp this afternoon and found this quote on the back of a receipt. “God is always seeking you. Every sunset. Every clear blue sky. Each ocean wave. The starry hosts of night. He blankets each new day with the invitation, ‘I am here,’” Louie Giglio. God pursues us with the beauty of his creation. I love the metaphor of Christianity and the closed door that God opens. “Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” God knocks on the doors of our hearts and we have to choose to open our hearts to him. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13.

God pursues us as a shepherd looks for sheep that have strayed from the flock. In Psalm 34:11 God says, “I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” As a shepherd God seeks believers and nonbelievers. We look for God and he’s all around us. Deuteronomy 4:29 reads, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

I see and feel God all around me when I sit on the church pew of my front porch swing. Today I watched the butterflies — cloudless sulfurs, gulf fritillaries, silver skippers — dance on the last of summer’s zinnias. I watched the handsome cardinals and their fawn brown mates drink from the bird baths. I watched a beautiful little dog lay herself down on the porch tile beside our yard cat. I saw the smiles and happy waves of my neighbors as they rode by. I gazed on a sky so blue it was a ocean of heaven. I watched Mother Nature paint a magnificent sunset with her peach watercolors. All these things are gifts from God letting us know and feel his presence.

Everyday God is right beside us asking us to accept him into our hearts, to open the door to a life of faith. Matthew 7:7 states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Being a Christian gives our lives meaning and purpose. God is a source of guidance and strength. He stands steadfast and strong beside us. God listens to our prayers and gives us peace and comfort as he shoulders our worries and anxieties. We are never alone when we have a personal connection with God.

A personal relationship with God gives us guidance in our daily life, strength to overcome life’s trials, forgiveness for our sins, and the promise of eternal life. Want more peace and joy and beauty and truth in your life? Open the door to your heart and welcome God inside.

“When you wake in the morning, think what a special privilege, it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” — Marcus Aurelius.