May is such a beautiful month. The earth seems to be stretching her limbs after winter and getting dressed in her spring finery. Not sure Mother Nature has decided yet if spring is here. Like us she’s not sure of how to dress. We’ve had some cool nights and the wind is giving us some cool mornings. She let the trees leaf out and is letting the garden seeds pop up. After all the challenges of winter, spring is known as “a season of hope” as nature wakes up after a winter of being dormant.

Today was so cool I put on a sweatshirt to sit in the porch swing. So many birds in my yard enjoying the feeders. A lone male blue grosbeak visited my yard, so handsome with his blue feathers and rusty-red wing bars. Watching him sit on a feeder with the red-breasted grosbeaks was a picture. The red-breasted grosbeaks brought their mates with them today. The female red-breasted grosbeaks look like sparrows on steroids, don’t match their mates coloring. You can always identify the grosbeaks by their large triangular shaped bills that almost cover their faces.

Found this quote when I was reading some definitions of spring — “At last came the golden month of the wild folk — honey sweet May when the birds come back, and the flowers come out, and the air is full of the sunrise scents and sounds of the dawning year,” Samuel Scoville, Jr. We just usually take the changing seasons for granted. I love having four seasons and I love the changing landscape of each one. I love the seasonal visits of the migrating songbirds, too. It would be so sad to live in a war torn country where spring tries to comes to barren, scorched earth. We know when winter is over spring will burst forth in her glory. Our days get longer and warmer. We raise our windows for fresh air and bird songs. The grass turns green and the flowers bloom, and the delicious fresh vegetables from our gardens begin to grace our dinner plates. Glorious May!

I was reading this afternoon and came across this sentence — The Devil shouts but God whispers. Have you ever heard God whisper? I have, many times, in quiet moments. You’d think God would yell or send a lightning bolt when he wants to get our attention but he whispers because he knows we have to pay attention when someone whispers. He can easily whisper to us because he is always so close to us.

When we’re experiencing a storm in our lives, we have to get through all the thunder and lightning of our troubles before we can listen to what God has to say. Psalm 46:10 reads, “Be still, and know that I am God.” We have to find quiet moments of silence for prayers and we have to be silent to listen. Sometimes in the midst of chaos we cry out for God and wonder why we can’t hear his wisdom. It’s like static on the radio, we keep turning the radio dial looking for the right station. God does hear us in the chaos of life and he gives us hope through our prayers. We have to be still and listen. God states in Isaiah 65:24, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

We don’t need to listen when the Devil yells. God whispers to us through the scriptures of the Bible, through our feelings, and through our prayers. God wants us to silence all the noise of our life and truly listen when he speaks to us. He wants our attention. I hear him whisper of the beauty of heaven’s hymns when I hear the songbirds sing in the early morning of the day’s dawning. I hear him whisper of the glorious heavens when I look at the magnificent watercolors brushed across the sky at sunset. I feel God’s whispered grace when my grandchildren say The Lord’s Prayer at church on Sundays and say their prayers at bedtime. I feel the whispers of God’s love when my family all gathers together happily and I hear the whispers of a happy reunion in heaven with loved ones who have gone before us.

God has given us so many, many blessings. We need to listen intently when he whispers. God’s whispers are purposeful and powerful and louder than the Devil can yell.

“God whispers your name because you matter to Him.”— Max Lucado