Thursday Thankfulness

Hello Friends! It's Thursday afternoon, and a good time to express some thankfulness to God for the good things He has been doing...Of course, He's always doing good things, but this is for current things...like these rain clouds in the sky!  We just had a very brief passing shower, but there is much more rain in the forecast for the next three days, so we are very hopeful that the rains will finally put out the fires that continue to burn in the region once and for all! 

And of course, we hope it will begin to refill our still very dry Still Waters Pond as well...but that may take quite a bit more rain than just one weekend. Still, we are thankful for whatever rain we get...every drop is precious to us.

Thankfully, the lack of rain has not kept the magnolias from blooming in the area...we saw this tree on our walking path this morning, and although this blossom was a bit too high for me to reach with my camera, you get the idea...it's still beautiful!

There are still many buds waiting to open, so to me that is all a part of God's amazing provision for His creation, even when the rains don't fall...the trees still blossom!

Isaiah 35:1-2

1The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,

And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;

(This rosebush has been blooming profusely, but I have to cut and bring the flowers inside because they die pretty quickly in the bright sunshine. So we enjoy them inside where they will live longer and their fragrance is so delightful).

2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,

Even with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord,

The excellency of our God.

Even the wild "Spiderwort" is blooming

And I rejoice every time I go out to our little garden patches and see things actually developing...like these tomatoes!

They keep surprising me because they like to hide under the leaves and I don't even see them until all of a sudden, there they are!! 

And this patch of wildflower seeds that I planted a week ago are sprouting up more and more every day. Now I see that I really should have spread them out more, as they are all jumbled up together in places. I do hope they will still develop and bloom in spite of my ineptitude in gardening prowess! Time will tell.

I wanted to share with you some things that brought tears of joy to my eyes this past Sunday at church. I don't have any pictures to show you, so you'll have to read the word pictures.  There were several things that just blessed me so much I really had a difficult time to keep from either crying or shouting Hallelujah! Actually, either would've been fine, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself and spoil the moments...

1. In the beginning of the service, while announcements were being made, etc., it was noted by our worship leader that we had three babies in our service!  And there was literally a cheer and applause for such a joyous occasion! All three babies are under a year old, and are special blessings...One sweet baby has been coming practically since the day she came home from the hospital. Her story is uniquely special because not long after she was born, her father decided that he really didn't want to be married (they were practically newlyweds still) or take care of a child, and so he left his wife and baby before the darling little girl was even two months old. Thankfully the mother had strong family support and also our church family rallied around them both and that sweet little girl has been such a delight in the church services...often being passed around from Mom to Grandma to friends who just want to hold her. This past Sunday however was really special, in that the baby's Great-Grandfather was there, and he is battling stage 4 cancer and is on oxygen, but he wants to come to church as much as he can. I looked out (from the choir loft where I can see everything going on!) and saw him holding that precious little girl, (who is quite an active little 7 month old nowadays), and she was looking up at him with such adoring eyes, but then she pulled on  his beard and oxygen tube, and so he had to pass her back to her mother...but for just a few moments it was such a precious sight, so you know why I was in tears. 

2.  The second baby is very young, maybe just a couple of months old, and she was there with her grandmother. I really don't know much about this child or its family, but I know we've been praying for her mother as she is a friend of one of our church members.  So, even though I don't know anything about her, just the fact that the grandmother came and brought her to church...and she was a perfect little angel the whole way through the service, was another amazing blessing. 

3. The third baby is a very BIG 7 month old baby boy, and this was his 2nd time to come to church.  (oh, BTW, we don't have a formal nursery for babies, but we do have a special room where Moms or Dads can take the baby to change them or feed them as needed, but until now, we've never needed a real nursery in our mostly retired congregation!)   Now, this one really got to me.  First of all, I know the mother had a really rough time with his delivery (because he was SO big and they should've done a C-section, but waited too long, so you know how hard that was for her), but anyway, she had a long recuperation. But here's the rest of the story...when it came time for Communion (our church serves Communion every Sunday at the close of the service), the Mother and Dad and Grandpa (actually he's the great- grandpa) all came forward, with the Grandpa carrying the baby. As I watched this dear man holding that very big child, I almost lost it. First of all, the Grandpa has Parkinson's Disease, and I couldn't believe that he could even carry that child and stand there with him that long, but he did, and that sweet little boy kept watching his Grandpa as he received Communion and he didn't miss a thing, nor did he fuss or squirm. It was a beautiful sight.  But second of all is the real part of the story I don't want you to miss.  This family has suffered some real sorrow over the past couple of years...first, the girl's mother (and the daughter of this man) passed away rather suddenly a couple years ago.  Then the man's father in law, who was also a beloved member of our church, died from liver cancer after a short battle.  Not very long after that, this man's wife, who was working as an active nurse, died from a stroke very suddenly.  So within a couple of years this family lost three family members, and they were still grieving those losses when this precious baby boy came along...and it was obvious to me that God brought this sweet baby into their lives:

 "To give them beauty for ashes,The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;"

Isaiah 61:3

and...

"Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning."

Psalm 30:5b

I will finish this story up with this verse:

Matthew 19:14  NIV

14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Do you understand why I wanted to shout hallelujah and cry tears of joy???

Okay, I have to wrap this up. I hope you appreciated and understood that rather long story. My heart was overwhelmed with the enormity of all that was happening in those lives and in the lives of those precious children.

So here's my current baby in my old rocking chair that I literally used to rock my babies in...

He has tried every chair in the house literally. I never know where I'll find him next.

And here was Blackie waiting for us to come home with the groceries the other day...

I think he's saying it's about time we got home, or maybe he's wondering if we brought him anything?

Either way, he was soon in the house helping us put the groceries away...LOL.

Okay, friends, that's all. I have to go fix supper. I am thankful for YOU, and for your friendship and patience as I share these long stories! I hope they blessed you too.