Saturday Musings: Seeing Things More Clearly

 Sometimes we see things through a hazy window, and it makes us wish we could get a clearer view...

The view through the window in my "room with a view"

So we go outside and take a closer look, where the light is brighter and the picture becomes more clear...

Oh, such lovely red geranium blossoms!!! 

Alas!  One last blossom on my Christmas Cactus! This was an added surprise that I did not even expect!

1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And so it is in the realm of the spiritual life as it is in the natural...we don't always totally comprehend what we are experiencing in this current life on earth...things happen that leave us questioning what is going on...where did that come from?  What was that all about?  We easily get confused, frustrated or angry when things don't go exactly as planned, or our intentions are misunderstood and people are offended because of our actions or words...or we misunderstand others and may become offended or hurt because of their actions or words...and it is like looking through that dim glass window (dare I say "dirty" window?) and we don't fully appreciate the beauty that is on the other side of it.  We can't see the bigger picture that God sees...the lessons that He may be trying to teach us or even the ways He may be protecting us from further hurt or harm...but when we get outside of the haze and clouds that are dimming our view, and the light of His SON is shining all around us, we can see the beauty of the picture more clearly.  We may have an "ah-ha" moment...where the lightbulb turns on above our heads and we can say "I can see it all now!"  

And God restores our peace once again so that we can face whatever lies before us in the great unknown...where God has already been and is preparing the way before us...

This little sign is a gift from a dear friend, whose name is also "Pamela", and who will soon be moving from her home here to go back up north where she no longer has a "Pamela's Paradise Porch", so she wanted me to have this to keep on my own porch to remember her by. (more about that later in this post)


Today has been a cloudy and rainy day here on Still Waters Pond...

There were a couple of male Wood Ducks swimming around the pond, but it was difficult to see them more clearly because of the cloudy skies...

This might be a little clearer, but still not showing off their true beauty like it would in the sunshine:


I was just happy to see them. They don't make an appearance in my vantage point very often. Not sure where the female ducks are...maybe they are sitting on a nest somewhere.


Speaking of nests...


Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane have still been diligently working on their new nest in the early morning hours and evening when they come back from their day of foraging...


It's fun to watch them slinging lily pad stems that they pull up from under the water onto the nest...


They both do their part...sometimes one stands watch while the other gathers...


It is definitely a joint effort and an act of love (some may say it's just instinct, but I think it's a special kind of bird-love that God gave them to keep their species going)


Call it whatever you wish, but they are driven by the inner urges that motivate them into action, and when the nest is ready, Mrs. Crane will literally sit down on it and lay an egg!



Meanwhile, the turtles have found this comfy cushion to be a lovely spot in which to sunbathe!

I am certain once Mrs. Crane has laid her egg, the turtles will be sent packing!




So now, let's move on to what else has been going on in the past couple of days! Yesterday was my hubby's birthday! We were kind of up in the air about what we were going to do to celebrate until a few days ago. Things weren't coming together for our extended family to get together due to sickness and other conflicts, so we decided to try and do something a little different. I wanted to surprise him with a new plan. Benton and Rose got on board and said they would host his birthday party at their house. Unbeknownst to hubby, we invited our Pastor and his wife and our friend Pamela (yes, the same one with the the porch sign above who is getting ready to move away). Her birthday is also the same day as my hubby's, and we have become her surrogate family here in Florida since she is from New England and all of her family are far away.


We decided to have a "weenie roast" and bonfire, complete with s'mores!








Here's our Pastor and wife and Pamela...

After our supper of hot dogs, potato salad, beans, coleslaw and deviled eggs, it was time for the birthday cake, and here are the two birthday kids being sung to:



And blowing out their candles:



Here's some varied pictures of our people roasting hotdogs or marshmallows...

Benton


Pastor's Wife Carol


Pastor and Hubby


Rose and Carol


Carol does love her s'mores almost as much as I do!



Yours truly, enjoying the first s'more in quite a while! And I couldn't stop with just one!


Thankfully we pulled off the surprise! Hubby didn't know anyone else would be there but our kids, and he was clearly blessed and happy, and so was our friend Pamela, although she was in on the surprise part.


As I said earlier, Pamela will soon be moving back to her home in New England for good. She is selling her little winter home here as her family is all up north and her home up there is a family home that she has had since childhood, so for her it will be a good thing, but we will miss her smiles and fun times here. We've called ourselves P1 and P2, I am P1 as I am a little older and was here first, so she is P2. It's always hard to see special people come and go in our lives, but sometimes we have to understand, just like in the verse I shared above about seeing things more clearly...God always has a bigger story that He is writing in our hearts and lives, and we just have to trust Him.




The Birthday "Twins"
Now, the birthday party wasn't completely over with this little gathering last night. Yesterday morning my hubby's brother Bill called to wish him a Happy Birthday, and then said they would be coming up here today to have lunch with us at our local "Hog Wild Country Cafe'". That was a pleasant surprise we didn't know about! And to make things even better, our son Scott was able to come home for the day and join us for lunch! Sadly, we didn't get a picture of all of us together, and my brother in law did take one picture of us after Scott had left, but as of this writing he hasn't sent it to me yet, so I will just have to post this without that picture. Suffice it to say, we had a great time with our family together for lunch. Benton and Rose were able to join us along with Scott, and my brother in law and wife Peggy came too, so we had a really sweet time together. All in all, it made for a lovely birthday celebration for my hubby after all!


I will close with these verses that are apart of what I shared earlier, although this is in the New King James Version, and the other was from the old King James, because that was the way I remembered learning it and liked that wording best for verse 12.



I Corinthians 13:11-13 NKJV
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Amen, and Good Night Friends!

P.S. I apologize for the change in fonts/etc. in this post. Something got messed up and I haven't been able to correct it. I hope you can still read it okay!!