After the Rain "We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise"

 Sunday morning we woke up to the blessed sound of rain upon the roof!  I felt like doing a dance of praise and thanksgiving.  It is fitting that our choir was singing this song for the Sunday morning worship service:  

"We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise" medley with "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee"

Hebrews 13:14-16  NKJV

"14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. 

15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 

16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

And even though the rain did not last very long, it was refreshing and delightful, and with it comes the promise of more to come later this week!

It's amazing what a little bit of rain does to encourage even the birds of the air! The Bluebirds came out to sit and enjoy the view of Still Waters Pond...

And also to take a little bath in the birdbath,  after admiring his reflection in the water:

Oh, that feels SO good!!!

And afterwards he sat on the bird feeder and let his fluffy, clean feathers dry in the fresh breezy air:

I'm sorry that I seem to be quite "enamored" with how handsome a cat our Sunshine is.  He's very photogenic and often gives us such wonderful poses without even knowing how much he delights us!

He decided he needed some fresh air, and was actually headed down to the pond to get a little drink from it...

But the Sand Hill Crane family was coming around the bend and stopped Sunshine in his tracks from going any further.  I was watching from inside the house and praying that Sunshine would realize his danger and get out of the way before Papa Crane came after him with his big flapping wings and sharp beak.  Thankfully, right after I took this picture Sunshine got up and ran back up the steps of the porch before the crane got any closer.    Blackie Sue had a similar experience a little earlier, and you never saw a cat run so fast as she did to scoot around and get up those steps before Papa Crane could get to her.  He did flap his wings as she scrambled to get by him, but thankfully she got out of harm's way before any harm was done.   That happened too quickly for me to get any pictures. 

Today I was motivated to plant some little flower plants that I picked up at the Garden/Farm Market on Saturday.  I know this doesn't look like much, but hopefully those plants will all bloom where they are planted and it will make a happy, colorful addition to my butterfly garden for this summer. I hope so, because I sure am hurting tonight from the  digging I did to make this little garden happen.  My neck and back muscles are definitely out of shape.

Hubby was busy with another project while I was doing my planting.  Thankfully he had some help  from a friend with his project, as his was a bit more involved and difficult.  Over the weekend some crazy driver knocked over the mailbox that belongs to our sweet neighbor across the street who is currently still in a nursing home/rehab.  Even if she was at home, she would not be able to do anything about this. 

The mailbox is across the street from her house, and is actually in the front yard of the new house next door to us, which still has not sold and the price has been reduced again.  However, I had a little conversation with the owner of this house and told her in a very kind and friendly manner that if she would go ahead and invest in some landscaping and make the house look less neglected and vacant, it might sell faster and she wouldn't have to keep lowering the price. She agreed with me and said she is looking for someone to do the landscaping now.  I hope she finds someone soon and that the house sells to those special people that I've been praying for to become our neighbors.

So anyway, I'm very thankful for hubby and our friend who took care of this today.  I wish the person who knocked it over would step up and confess and offer to pay for the expenses of repair, (even though they weren't much, but it's the principle of the thing) but I doubt that will happen.  Did you know that deliberately damaging a mailbox is a federal offense, and you could go to jail for 3 years and/or face a fine of up to $250,000 ? Yep!  That's true!  But if a person would just admit to making a mistake and pay for the damages, I think most people would drop those charges.  It's just sad that people, most likely teenagers, think it's fun to do this. They don't realize what a problem it is for people to have to repair these kinds of damages, especially elderly people who have no way to do it themselves.

Among some other things I've been planting lately is this Golden Dewdrop bush.

Interestingly enough, the flowers on this bush are purple, but it will have golden berries eventually. I thought it would be a nice bush to plant in my raised planter that Benton built and gave me, but upon reading up on it just now, I realized that this plant will actually  "grow 10 to 15 feet wide and up to 18 feet tall, depending on growing conditions and pruning frequency."

I don't think it will be staying in the little planter for very long! Now I need to figure out the right place to put it!  Aren't those purple flowers so dainty and pretty? I understand that butterflies will love it.

I am happy to see that this blueberry bush that I planted a few years ago is loaded with berries this year! 

They will probably be ripe enough to eat by June.

And last but not least, this geranium plant is starting to grow again. I repotted it (actually there are two different ones in this pot) into this larger pot, and gave it some good fresh fertilized soil, and it looks so much happier than before.

I am not much of a gardener, so I am always happy whenever anything grows and actually gets flowers and/or berries on it!

I started out this post with the song "We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise into the house of the Lord..."   and I feel like these things are all special sacrifices of praise. I praise the Lord for His kindness in sending us rain...even if it was just a little...there's more coming we trust and believe...and so we "sacrifice" our time and energy to plant things that will be beautiful and enjoyable to us as well as to the birds, butterflies and bees, which will also help pollinate other flowers and bushes all around. We 'sacrifice' our time and energy to repair something for a dear friend and neighbor who is unable to do things for herself right now. We give thanks to God for the strength and ability to do these things, even if my muscles are hurting tonight. It's a good kind of hurt when you know you've accomplished something.

We give thanks to the Lord for the peaceful and pleasant ending to a good day on Still Waters Pond.  

Sunshine is in his favorite spot, resting up for whatever the nighttime may bring...See Mr. Sand Hill Crane in the background? He's up here for a final hunt for food before retiring.  Mama and young "Trumpet" are already settled over on the nest island for the night.

Blackie Sue is in her favorite spot on the blue chair that someone dropped off of a pickup truck right onto our front lawn, and so it became "her chair".  And everyday that goes by I am more convinced that she had a "false pregnancy". She is starting to slim back down again and doesn't look as big in her tummy as before.  Unless something changes, we have an appointment to have her "fixed" next week. Then we won't have to worry about that issue anymore.  I am very thankful that it has turned out this way, even though it would've been fun to see her kittens...it is really for the best for all concerned that she's not having any.

Here's a good passage to end this post for today from the book of Ecclesiastes...

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11 NKJV

Everything Has Its Time

"1 To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

2 A time to be born,

And a time to die;

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

3 A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

A time to break down,

And a time to build up;

4 A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

And a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to gain,

And a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

7 A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

And a time to speak;

8 A time to love,

And a time to hate;

A time of war,

And a time of peace.

The God-Given Task

9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 

10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."

So until next time, good night and be blessed my friends.