A flock of cedar waxwings visited my neighborhood this morning swarming around the holly trees looking for berries. I heard the waxwings excited high pitched happy whistles before I went outside to walk Penelope. Such beautiful birds with their soft brown, gray and lemon-yellow plumage, their wing tips dipped in bright red, their tail feathers swatched in yellow. Black masked like the Lone Ranger and dressed with small brown crests on their heads gives them a pert expression like a soldier at attention. A flock of cedar waxwings is called an earful because their chattering calls are so loud. When the flock gathers and flies from tree to tree they float beautifully in the sky, undulating like an ocean’s wave making love to a sandy beach. So happy to see them today, a gift of sunshine on this cold rainy day. As E.B. White wrote, “Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” And those cedar waxwings are a wonder.

I think Mother nature won the weather argument this morning and told Father Sky to fill his sketched clouds with cold rain, to color the clouds gray and purple. Old Man Winter took his freezing rain back up north disappointed in the changing forecast. Mother Nature put yellow rain slickers and duck boots on the sun and Father Sky and ran them quickly down the wet cloud covered horizon putting the day to bed and waking the night.

Ever read something you just felt was meant for you. Read this today in one of my devotional books and it just speaks to my heart. Here’s the paragraph written by Frances Gunther. “All the wonderful things in life are so simple that one is not aware of their wonder until they are beyond touch. Never have I felt the wonder and beauty and joy of life so keenly as now in my grief that Johnny is not here to enjoy them.” This paragraph describes how I feel about all the wonders in nature and life that somehow I just never appreciated till Chief died. I’ve always noticed the beauty in the world but never thought of it as a gift from God. Maybe I just took the beautiful things for granted or maybe my life just moved too fast for me to observe them.

I read a poem this morning titled I Wish You Enough by Bob Perks. Such beautiful words of sentiment for the people we love. These words made me cry. Here’s the poem in paragraph form. I Wish You Enough — “I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting. I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you posses. I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.” I wish you enough hellos…beautiful. We should all be so lucky.

We are all enough. God created each one of us in his image as unique and amazing individuals. Our gifts God gave us should be used to worship and to serve him, to glorify his name. Because of his love and grace we are “wonderfully made.” Psalm139:14 states, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” We don’t need anything to validate us. Romans 8:29 reads, “He will transform me until I begin to resemble him who redeemed me.”

God wants us to live our lives in a way that pleases him. We all fall short of perfection but God loves us, forgives us, and accepts us as we are. Whether we have riches or nothing at all, stormy skies or rainbows, God is really all we need. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:19.

God sends trials to help us strengthen our faith. He never said life would be an easy path to walk. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world,” John 16:33. God wants us to cry out for his help through our prayers. Even when we ignore him he’s faithful and steadfast, always forgiving. God is enough and so are we.

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” — Lao Tzu