Monday Monday~"This Is My Father's World"

Happy Monday!  After a busy and somewhat difficult week/weekend, I am happy to be starting a new week. Our calendar looks relatively free (so far), and it looks like a good week to try to let my mind and body relax and recapture the joy and beauty of the world around us.  We started out the morning by taking a little ride down to the Kenwood Boat Ramp, because there's a good place to walk around for my hubby, and a good place for me to get close to nature and just enjoy what the Lord has provided. And He didn't disappoint this morning. (He never does!).  

This very familiar old hymn, "This Is My Father's World", came to my mind as I was writing this and looking at the pictures that I took this morning at the boat ramp, and also some taken in our own yard this morning and yesterday afternoon.  Maybe you can listen to the music while you look at the pictures.

This is my Father's world

(Little Blue Heron)

And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and roundly rings

The music of the spheres

This is my Father's world

The birds their carols raise

The morning light, the lily-white

Declare their maker's praise

This is my Father's world

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees,

 

of skies and seas

His hand the wonders wrought

This is my Father's world

Oh, let me ne'er forget

Vulture

That though the wrong seems oft so strong

God is the ruler yet

This is my Father's world

Why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is King, let the heavens ring

God reigns, let the earth be glad

This is my Father's world

He shines in all that's fair

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass

He speaks to me everywhere

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the music.  Especially these last pictures of our Blackie...the giant flower in the zinnia garden...I was mildly scolding him for laying on my flowers, but he was so cute, I couldn't be very mad at him...He just wanted to enjoy smelling the flowers along the way. 

The blueberries are on my own bush.

I picked this many ripe ones this morning...

And there are still many more ripening for the future!

I enjoyed them on some yogurt and granola...

The pictures of the Baby Bluebird in the birdhouse shared above and then the empty nest is actually a sad story. I hesitate to even share it, but it's all apart of the cycle of nature. Sadly, I witnessed a very large crow come and snatch that precious little bluebird right out of that window not too long after I had taken that picture. The parent bluebirds rapidly zoomed into action and chased the crow, who was still holding the baby in his beak, out across the pond, where they had quite a battle, but I am sorry to say that the poor baby bird did not survive the fight, and the parents flew back home to the nest bereft of their child. As far as I know that was the only baby they had from that clutch of eggs.  However, I have noticed that they have been coming back and checking out the birdhouse again, and perhaps they will start another nest.  I removed the old nest from the house, because they won't build on top of it.

I am sad about the bluebird, but I love the way the parents have come right back to start again. I don't know whether they will be successful this time or not, but they are not easily discouraged. They have a 'calling' to "multiply" and "replenish" the Bluebird kingdom.   So they get back to work, building their nest.  They did grieve...I saw how they chased that bad crow and tried their best to rescue their baby, but when they knew they couldn't win that fight, they came back home and said we'll try again.  

Sometimes in life that's what we have to do as well.  We can't rescue every child, we can't keep bad things from happening in this world. We can't stop the process of aging, no matter how hard we try. But we can keep trusting God for every new day. We can count the blessings we do have, and rejoice in the Lord for each new day.  Because when we take the time to count our blessings, we realize that we often have more reasons to Praise God than we do to feel sorry for ourselves. 

Psalm 103 KJV

103 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

I bet if we tried hard enough, we could find 10,000 reasons to praise Him!  

Okay, on that note I will close this for today. I am trusting God for a good good week...one day at a time! How about you?