Joy Comes in the Morning

I noticed as we walked by the place where these wild plum trees were blooming that they were looking kind of "pink"!  

I had never noticed that before so I had to go have a closer look, and what it is is the centers of the blossoms and the stamen and pistils are actually pink, and the white petals are starting to drop off. Soon they will begin to form the fruit! I will be watching for this now that I know where these trees are!  The wild plum is rather small and I don't know how sweet they are, but they might make some good jam or jelly! We shall see what develops. (And how energetic I might be when the fruit ripens...if there is any fruit!)

I just think they are so pretty, and they are growing wild all around through the woods where we like to take our walks. This sight made me smile today after a rather sad weekend.

After our walk we came back to our house and I noticed these little yellow flowers growing along the fence on our property boundary.

Upon closer inspection I realized that this is a wild "Carolina Jessamine", a type of jasmine.

This gives me great joy also, even though I know it is wild and the blooming season will be short lived, but it brings color and beauty to our "landscape"...and some surprising flowers that I did not know were here! These are the little things that God does to make me happy! Such a blessing!

I rather liked this picture of this solitary Canadian Goose relaxing on the pond. She/he really wasn't alone. His/her (?) mate wasn't far off, but I liked this particular "pose".

 Kind of goes along with this picture below:

 Now, I know you are wondering how many more pictures of these Ring-Necked ducks are you going to have to endure! Well, I don't know...Today there were at least a dozen of these ducks out there all at the same time...I think that is a record! I couldn't just ignore that, could I?

Especially when they started standing up and flapping their wings for me, showing off a little bit!

Speaking of a dozen all gathered around, flapping their wings and showing off for us...on Friday we were pleased to be invited over to a couple's home for supper and to "play Scrabble".  These are friends from our church, and we were truly looking forward to the fellowship and playing games as well.  However, our plans got a little bit changed as our friends are grandparents to a lovely little family that has five beautiful, darling children. I've written about this family before HERE.  Due to some family issues, our friends were asked to babysit for the kids for the afternoon, and so our quiet little get together with this couple went from the four of us playing scrabble and having supper together to, before the evening was over, there were TWELVE of us sitting around their dining room table, enjoying a wonderful meatloaf dinner that the grandchildren actually helped prepare, and such laughter and fun and antics...(we kind of looked like that flock of ducks above)  Well, we never did play Scrabble, but we had such a great time that we didn't even miss it.  I love it when spontaneous fun and fellowship happens! Don't you?   And our friends promised that we WILL play Scrabble together soon, but we really don't mind one way or the other. We were blessed to be a part of this beautiful family for a day!

As I've probably shared before, we only have the one grandson, and he is now 20 years old and lives 1500 miles away, so we don't often have the opportunity to spend time with him or with little ones around. These kids ranged in age from 13 years down to 3 years old...and every one of them is so full of love and sweetness they just blessed our hearts.

I love how God brought beauty and laughter and joy into our lives this weekend, in the midst of some sad news about our friend who died so unexpectedly, (at least it was unexpected to us). 

Psalm 30 seems to go along with this...

 A Song at the dedication of the house of David.

1I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,

And have not let my foes rejoice over me.

2O Lord my God, I cried out to You,

And You healed me.

3O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;

You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

4Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,

And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

5For His anger is but for a moment,

His favor is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning.

6Now in my prosperity I said,

“I shall never be moved.”

7Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;

You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

8I cried out to You, O Lord;

And to the Lord I made supplication:

9“What profit is there in my blood,

When I go down to the pit?

Will the dust praise You?

Will it declare Your truth?

10Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;

Lord, be my helper!”

11You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,

12To the end that my glory may sing praise to You

 

and not be silent.

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

How about you? Have you experienced these special times of joy after times of sorrow? Have you seen the ways that God does not leave us in our sorrows, but "His favor is for life...Weeping may endure for a night, But Joy comes in the morning."  Sometimes it takes a while before we are even able to think about singing praise and dancing again after a great loss...but God in His mercy, knows just what we need and when we need it. We need to be open to His love and being clothed with gladness...and open our hearts to sing praise to Him and not be silent. I pray for those who are grieving right now, that their hearts will be softened by His loving Presence, and that joy will flood their souls to overflowing.  Amen.