Saturday Thoughts

I'll start with this...Yes, I am VERY thankful and feeling blessed to have come through this storm virtually unscathed. When I look around our area, I hear that there are still some without power and may not get it back until next week.  But I don't see much devastation or destruction from the storm here in our community...maybe a few trees down here and there, and there may be other issues I am not aware of, but all in all, our area is very very fortunate.  Then when I look on the news and hear about the horrific devastation in so many other places, both here in Florida and also up in Georgia and the Carolinas and Tennessee, especially in the mountains...well, I just have to be completely humbled that we escaped with so few issues here when others are suffering so very much. I have a "relative by marriage" who lost everything in her home due to storm surge. She lives close to the Gulf coast. Sadly, she also very recently lost her husband unexpectedly, and she truly is suffering from so much loss.  My heart truly breaks for her. Thankfully, her friends and family are rallying support for her and are helping her through this crisis...but it is a loss that she will never totally get over.  

 Last evening I was blessed to spend some time watching the sunset over Still Waters Pond. After the anxiety of the past few days it had a very calming effect on me, and I was truly grateful to God for sending His beauty to us to behold.

It was kind of like a rainbow after the storm...a sign to us that God is with us and He hasn't forgotten us. It was very comforting.

You can't see them in this picture, but I was watching little bats flying to and fro, snatching mosquitoes out of the air, and I thanked them for their kindness.

And then I heard some birds calling, a high squeaky kind of whistle-y call, and then I saw these ducks flying over the pond. I couldn't tell what kind of ducks they were, but I'm thinking perhaps they were the Black Bellied Whistling Ducks that were here a few weeks ago.  

Not sure, but still, I was thrilled to see them and hear them.  It made me think about how Noah sent out a dove to look for dry land after being on the Ark for so long after the flood...once it came back with an olive branch, and the next time it didn't come back at all, so Noah knew that the waters were receding and soon they would be able to leave the ark and get back onto dry land.  It gave me a sense of peace that soon things would get back to normal, but it may take a bit longer for some areas of the country for certain.  We truly need to pray for our brothers and sisters in those parts of the country that have been so devastated. May God comfort them and provide what they need in miraculous ways.

I find myself feeling kind of guilty for enjoying "normal" kinds of life while so many others are suffering.  Do you ever feel that way?  I suppose that is a normal response.  I wish there was something that I could do to help out, but I'm not really in a position to help out much financially or physically, however I can pray, and that is oftentimes the best thing we can do. God knows where to find those who are able to do the leg work and the financial support...and prayer is something that actually helps turn more hearts toward God.  So unless He shows me some other way I can help, that will be my part.  

Actually yesterday something strange happened, and in many ways I feel like it was a "God-thing".  There was an older, very heavy-set man sitting out in our street almost in front of our house on his John Deere tractor/mower. It had broken down, and he couldn't get it to start. Apparently he was riding his mower down the street to go to the Dollar General store that is around the corner from us in the entrance to our neighborhood.  Yes, you heard me...he was riding his mower to the store. That is something that I've noticed that is not all that unusual here in our neighborhood. They don't have to get out onto the busy highway to go to the store, so I've seen people riding golf carts, larger tractors with a canopy over top and giving their dogs a ride to the store, bikes, and four wheeler vehicles. This is a rural community and well, people get creative with their modes of transportation, as long as they aren't on the highway.

Anyway, I'll try to make a long story short...the mower was in the street and he couldn't move it off the street. So my hubby went out and asked him if he needed some help, and he said he couldn't move it as it was kind of locked up. Hubby looked at it and couldn't figure anything out either, so he offered to drive the man back to his home, but he didn't want to leave the mower in the street, which is understandable. He thought someone was coming who might be able to help him.  So hubby came back inside, and because it was hot out, I suggested we take him a bottle of water. Of course, since it was my idea, I could take it...LOL...anyway, I took him a bottle of water and he said I was an "angel", and he was very thankful. I offered to make a phone call for him on my phone, but he actually had his own phone with him.  He still didn't want to leave the mower, so he sat down in the shade on the grass. He had long white hair and was rather large and rotund, and it seems like he was wearing a red shirt. He reminded me of Santa Claus.   Anyway, a little later hubby went back out and checked on him and took him another bottle of water as actually an hour or more had gone by. People would stop and ask him if they could help, but no one seemed to be able to do anything and on they'd go.  Finally a man came with a four wheeler, and he was able to pull or drag the tractor off the road onto the grass.  He then convinced the man to let him take him back home.  Not long after that someone knocked on our door wanting to know if the mower was for sale.  Then another person came later and knocked and wondered if it was being left out there as a "give away".  Sometimes people put things beside the road they don't want and people take them, whether they work or not.  So we had to tell the people that no, it wasn't for sale or give away and that we hoped it would still be there in the morning!  The old man came back later with a friend who drove him there, and they looked at it again and still couldn't figure out how to get it started or move it, and so had to leave it overnight. 

Thankfully the mower was still there this morning when we woke up.  We went to the grocery store and came back after a while, and no sooner did we get inside the house than someone came knocking on our door. I opened the door, and there was another older rather rotund man with long white hair standing there wanting to know about the mower. At first I thought he was the same man who owned it, but then realized he was different, but he could've been his brother. He also reminded me of Santa Claus! LOL. I told him the story about the mower, etc., and then he offered me a grocery bag that he was holding, and in it was a bag of fresh apples and a 5 lb. bag of potatoes! He wanted me to have them! I looked around for his car, and seeing none, I asked him where he came from and how he got there! He also had a cane, and had come up our 5 steps onto the front deck, carrying that heavy bag! He said he was a neighbor down the street, but he had just come from the food pantry in the next little town over, where they distribute food to the needy. He said he had enough apples and potatoes and wanted me to have these! I said that he surely hadn't walked all the way to the food pantry (about 3 miles away from us), and it was starting to sprinkle rain...He said no, but he had been waiting for us to come home and he was a neighbor.  Well, I thanked him very kindly, all the while wondering about this very strange turn of events and the two men coming into our lives who both looked like Santa Claus within 24 hours, neither of whom we had ever seen before! One called me an angel for bringing him water, and the other brought me gifts I never expected.  

I'm not even sure why I am  telling you this long story...and btw, the mower is still out there, 24 hours later!  I think it is a story that has taught me a lesson.  You cannot out-give God.  Showing kindness to the one man yesterday and offering him a drink of water on a hot day, and then today a total stranger shows up with gifts for us. I truly never expected that and was totally humbled and "blown away" by this simple gift of apples and potatoes.

Please understand I am not sharing this story with you for any pats on the back, but to demonstrate the amazing ways God blesses us when we give without expecting anything in return. With all of the needy people out there right now, especially because of this storm, it is a good lesson to me that shows that even a cup of water, given freely to others, is not a small thing in God's eyes. Whatever we can do to help someone else who is hurting or in need is truly a big thing to God.

Luke 6:38  

38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Psalm 116:12 

"What shall I return to the Lord

for all his goodness to me?"

And with that, I think I will close this post for tonight.  I had other things I was going to write about, but for some reason this was what came out.  Must be a lesson there for all of us in one way or another.

Something pretty to close with...I went outside this afternoon to put the bird feeders and other lawn "ornaments" back in the yard after having taken them down for the storm.  I couldn't help but see these three lovely yellow " Cloudless sulphur butterflies" flitting around from flower to flower on the Cape Honeysuckle bush.  They were so light and pretty and happy as they danced from flower to flower without a care in the world, and then they would swirl up and around each other in the air and fly away for a second or two and come back...so delightful to watch...

They made me smile and thank the Lord again for His lovely creation that He uses to bless us.  

What lovely things have you seen around you lately that you can share?

Psalm 62:8  NKJV

8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;

Pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us. Selah

Amen and Good Night!