Friday Foto Friends:Daily Renewal

"Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  

And in Your book they all were written, 

the days fashioned for me, 

when as yet there were none of them."  

Psalm 139:16

What have you been doing this week? Did you ever stop to think that God already knew what your days would be, long before you ever were born?  According to this passage, He had already written about you and me in His book, and He was preparing a place for us to be before we were even a twinkle in our parents' eyes!  This is a thought that is perhaps too big for any of us to fathom.  But it should cause us to treasure our days here and realize that we are precious in God's eyes...and that every day has a purpose.  

With all of that in mind, here are some pictures from my past week...some not so exciting, and some just random events...but apparently important enough that God has already written about them in His book...that is mind boggling...would He really care about all of this?  I often think that God has quite the sense of humor if He really wrote about all my days...

For instance:  We celebrated our new flannel sheets last night when the temperatures dipped down to the 20's here in our neck of the woods in Florida...

Aren't these little owls the cutest?  They make me smile...

We also received a very nice Christmas gift of this new bear bedspread ensemble.  I believe it was intended for our master bedroom, but our guest bedroom was already designated as the "Bear Crossing B&B", so it just seemed to fit here much better.  I hope the gift giver won't mind...

 This inspired me to get busy and clean out the closet in this guest room (long overdue), and I discovered this brown furry/and buffalo plaid  flannel lined blanket that my mother had actually made for our youngest son many years ago...and it truly completed this bed perfectly. Now it is really ready for company!  I wish my mother was here to see this. I'm missing her this week especially as her birthday is coming up on Saturday, January 6th.  She would have been 101 years old!!  Maybe she is smiling from heaven...

Another Christmas gift was the sign below "Christmas At The Cabin...where memories are made"

Our son (Ben's Wood Signs) made this for us to replace the original one that he had made and sold! 

I like to display the sign under the little log cabin replica that he made. (Click Here for the original story about that)

Our home isn't really a cabin, but I like to pretend that it is sometimes...

Another great Christmas gift was this jigsaw puzzle, entitled "Time Away"  (looks like my dream cabin...)

 And here I am puzzling over this puzzle...a great chilly, rainy day activity...

This morning we woke up to frost everywhere... (outside my kitchen window)

 Yes, that is frost on the ground...

And we braved the cold to take a walk to the neighborhood pond just in time to see that Blue Heron fly away...

 And to see all those little ducks (some kind of wild water ducks) land on the pond way over there on the other side...can you see them?

I took down the Christmas tree, but just can't quite put away the Nativity Scene just yet...after all Epiphany isn't until January 6th, when we celebrate the day the Wise Men came...

Here is another new Christmas sign from my son:

This is just a sampling of the week...there was much, much more...interaction with special people, visitors here, visits to others, a trip to the library, a haircut...

(oops, you caught me in my pj's!)

Yes,  God has also been busy at my daily renewal...(that will continue to be a work in progress...not just this year, but all the rest of my days that God has already written about...)

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

and see if there is any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting."

Psalm 139:23-24

Amen.

So, I still wonder how all of you have been this week?  Let's skip over to Deb's place at Breathing in Grace and see what our other Friday Foto Friends have been doing.  I pray you have a blessed and wonderful weekend...and just think about how God has already written about your days...kind of makes you want to do something special, huh?  

Here is the new image for Friday Foto Friends from Deb!  Isn't it cute?  We love Owlies!!!

P.S.  Here is a link to some info on "Epiphany", in response to one of my reader's comments:https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/epiphany

I should probably not have inferred that I celebrate Epiphany...it is more of a recognition of this event.  Many churches, mostly the more liturgical churches do recognize Epiphany, or "Twelfth Night".  In my home growing up we never took down our Christmas tree until Jan. 6th, which was also my mother's birthday.  I always assumed it was because that was her birthday, and that is what they did in her home as she was growing up.  It wasn't until later years that I understood that Jan. 6th was "Epiphany", and many traditional churches recognize the visit of the Magi (The Wise Men) on that day. That doesn't necessarily mean that was the date they actually visited the baby Jesus. There are many discussions on that, mostly that it was anywhere from several months up to a year or more before the Wise Men actually arrived to present their gifts.  We just know that it wasn't on Christmas day.  They had followed the Star from their lands starting on the day Christ was born, and it led them to the Christ Child (read Matthew chapter 2).  So whether or not you or your particular church recognize Epiphany as an actual event is not the most important aspect of this.  It's just another beautiful way to close out the Christmas/Advent season and recognize the significance of the gifts of the Magi...Gifts that actually may have helped the "Holy Family" to make their escape to Egypt when King Herod ordered all the baby boys two years old and younger to be slaughtered...just some things to ponder as you put away your Christmas things and your Nativity Scene...