Porch perched and pondered this morning watching the finches and cardinals flitting around enjoying the bird feeders. I have a new critter in my yard, not sure what it is, maybe a deer. My youngest son watched a deer lick the seeds from a feeder late at night several weeks ago but this critter is just focused on the ground. All the dirt under the feeders around the oak tree looks like I’ve tilled it up. There is not a sunflower seed or husk to be seen on the ground and there were years of sunflower remnants, several inches deep under the feeders. The ground was spongy when I walked on it. I’m going to rake the ground tomorrow and use the leaf blower frequently to clean the area. Those old husks and seeds are probably not good for wildlife to eat. Might put a row of pavers under the feeders and I can keep them swept.

Was watching college football this afternoon and forgot to return to the porch swing to watch Mother Nature paint the sunset. I know it was beautiful, the sun dressed in a silver sequined pageant gown, walking down the horizon on the arm Father Sky, who was decked out in a black tuxedo complete with silver capped walking cane and top hat. He tipped his hat at me when I took Penelope for her walk after supper. The night sky was dark and pretty as the stars waked, turning on their twinkling diamond nightlights. Father Sky didn’t wake the moon, who was hiding under the night’s deep purple clouds. Guess the moon will be waking himself tonight, dressing in his waning gibbous costume, before stepping up on the center of the night’s stage. Going to look for him later.

I love this quote from an unknown source. I run across it frequently in my stash of quotes. “God is still writing your story. Quit trying to steal the pen. Trust the author.” We all have to have faith in God’s plans for our lives. I believe our life is mapped out by God before we’re born. Psalm 139:16 says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

We all want to steal God’s pen and write our own autobiography but God encourages us to pray and follow his guidance. He’s chosen the path we walk but we all have times we step off his path, traveling in a different direction of our choice. Eventually we realize we’re lost, traveling off God’s path, and pray for strength to turn around and get back on our journey of faith. God guides us and allows us to make our own choices.

Fr. Albert Nwosu encourages us to trust in God’s plan, advising, “Don’t put a period where God is putting a comma. Trust that the same hands that wrote the stars into the sky are the same hands holding your future.” I think God has written challenges and trials into our life allowing us to grow in our faith and to develop empathy. We appreciate the sunshine more when we’ve had nothing but rainy days. We can’t control the storms that blow into our lives but we can trust God to stand by us in the storms, his strength leading us to the rainbows.

We all have a life story, a biography of our life, and I believe God’s the author of our story. We are the characters in God’s story. We have series of events and experiences that make us who we are. God is constantly adding chapters to our life’s story and we have to trust him as we face the challenges of this life. Jeremiah 29:11 states God’s plans: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Even in our worst times, when we think we can’t go on, he is with us helping us carry our burdens. God and his love are always preparing us for our heavenly life. Our lives are not accidents but a purposeful journey orchestrated by the Lord.

Ephesians 2:10 states, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God is the master storyteller and we have to trust that he knows best.

“A great life is not the result of a formula perfectly followed. Rather of a God wholly trusted.” Eric Ludy