Today was waked with an overcast sky diffusing the warm sun’s rays, illuminating my yard in soft light. The clouds were pressed close, keeping their colors secret, making the vanilla clouds stand in the forefront, soldiers bravely keeping the sun away. The sun soon burned off the clouds and burst through with her golden warm rays showing off the winter blue sky. I looked down on the yard from my second story windows and my yard was full of cardinals, beautiful birds, the male and female plumage contrasting and complimenting each other. The raspberry finches and the chickadees and the titmice joined with the cardinals in a symphony of good morning music.

Kathleen Dean Moore writes, “The earth offers gift after gift — life and the living of it, light and the return of it, the growing things, the roaring things, fire and nightmares, falling water and the wisdom of friends, forgiveness. My god, the forgiveness, time, and the scouring tides. How does one accept gifts as great as these and hold them in the mind?” We accept these gifts as tokens of God’s grace. The Lord loves us as a father loves his children and wants us to be happy and prosper. The simple fact of being alive is a gift from God. God’s gifts are not just material possessions but the beauty of his creation, our relationships, and our everyday experiences. I’m thinking of tangible gifts I’ve been given today from the Lord’s earth. Have to mention the wondrous songbirds, the velvet night sky with its luminous moon, the soft breezes to awaken the wind chime serenades, the sky in its art of overcast clouds and glorious colored sunset, the fruit for my breakfast plate, the friendship of a phone call.

God provides everything we need to experience joy and satisfaction. Ecclesiastes 5:19 reads, “Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.” God has entrusted his earth to us and as Christians we are stewards of this earth. Moore also writes, “We are called to live lives of gratitude, joy, and caring, profoundly moved by the bare fact that we live in the time of the singing of birds.” We need to live with a conscious appreciation for the beauty that exists in this world and be grateful for these gifts. Something as simple as a little songbird or an old gnarled oak tree can bring us joy when we acknowledge them as gifts from a loving God.

As dusk walked up the street’s sidewalks this evening, I watched the sunset pageant through the windows of my lady den. I shaded my eyes and peeking through my fingers I could see her prism rainbow points of light radiating in all directions. The blazing ball of the sun rolled down the horizon burning as bright as a newly minted silver dollar and disappeared in a landscape of fiery pink. The sun is so glorious when she pulls the shades down on daylight. Father Sky then sketched his night sky exquisitely, a deep dark purple accented with sparkling diamonds. He hung a luminous waxing gibbous moon to guide the night travelers and keep the jewel thieves away. The night is waking and the day is sleeping. We are so blessed to live in God’s creation. Our earth gives us a life of both joy and sorrow, beauty and hardship. We have sunny days and stormy days and God walks with us daily no matter the weather.

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” — Paulo Coelho