The Return of the Hummingbirds

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 216: Today, I am grateful for the return of the hummingbirds.

We have been waiting and it happened. The hummingbirds have returned. Randy was able to capture this picture. I am so glad he did. We have now seen them in both the front and back yards sipping from their favorite flowers in our garden. The zinnias and the salvia provide an evening snack. 

They move so quickly, they are hard to capture. They bounce, dance, and flit from bloom to bloom.

“‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’" Jeremiah 33:11

Let heaven and nature sing.

Today, I am grateful for the return of the hummingbirds.

New Learning

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 215: Today, I am grateful for new learning.  

Mama Ina Mae always said we should try to "learn something new every day." I heard it so many times growing up that it was more like inhaling and exhaling than an old adage to remember. Natural curiosity can be be fueled and focused. She lived to foster it. 

Mama was a learner and a teacher every day of our childhood and into adulthood. I wish I had written more things down. Some things I did not recognize as learning because they naturally grew in the fertile soil of encouragement. 

Anyone can learn if given opportunity and resources; wisdom comes from God. 

"Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning." -Proverbs 9:9

What leaning will we discover today?

Today, I am grateful for new learning.  

Self-Deception

 

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 214: Today, I am grateful for reminders to not deceive ourselves. 

"Don't kid yourself" is a relatively common phrase that echoes Biblical instruction:

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." -James 1:22

The Message puts it like this:

"Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!" 

James 1 is a combination of encouragement, direction, and warning. Being called a hypocrite is never a compliment. We can quote scripture all day, but if that does not change the way we act,  it is just head knowledge. On the other side of the coin, we cannot pick and choose the things we like and ignore the rest. 

His Word is deep in truths and wide in grace, but there is the expectation of living differently for those who walk in the light. What we truly believe shows up in how we walk in faith. 

Today, I am grateful for reminders to not deceive ourselves. 

Rise & Shine

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 213: Today, I am grateful for the choice to rise and shine.  

It is a dreary, rainy day here in north central Illinois. We have been blessed with enough rain to keep the grass green this summer and the flowers blooming beautifully. So, I will not complain about a rainy day. But perhaps, the day made this image more appealing. 

We used to sing "Rise and shine and give God the glory" at church camp and children's church. It is a song you can't help getting stuck in your head. 

"You can make me rise, but you can't make me shine" is popular on funny posters and memes. Shining is a choice. 

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you." -Isaiah 60:1

The glory of the Lord rises upon you. That is a promise we can cling to on any day of the week. 

Today, I am grateful for the choice to rise and shine.  

Breaking Song

 

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 212: Today, I am grateful for breaking song.

"Somewhere out there, someone is listening to birds instead of breaking news, and the world feels a little more hopeful there." 

This image made me smile. I hope it makes you smile, too. Instead of breaking news, we can be intentional to listen to birds breaking into song. There are times we forget we have that choice. 

Being well informed is important, but our access to input from outsides sources can be overstimulating and overwhelming. An intentional pause or shutdown to reboot can be a game changer. 

 "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" -Luke 12:24

The birds do not worry or fret. They sing, and many have to rebuild their homes every year. They still greet each day with a song as they flit and hop about unchoreographed, seemingly filled with an endless supply of hope. 

Today, I am grateful for breaking song.

Nightlights

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 211: Today, I am grateful for nightlights. 

They are small lights used to illuminate dark spaces at night. They help prevent the accidents that happen in unlit places, especially at night. We have many. Without them, no tiny toes are safe. 

When the world is dark, light is what breaks the darkness. It is nature. Nature speaks truth. It is something we take for granted.

Just as the stars and moon help light the skies at night, nightlights help us navigate darkness. We are called to help the world navigate darkness, too. 

“You are the light of the world... A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. -Matthew 5:14,16

If you have ever flown at night, it is always a little magical to see the night lights that illuminate the earth below. It reminds me that light is so much more powerful than darkness. It only takes the tiniest light to make the darkness flee. 

Today, I am grateful for nightlights. 

 

Shakespeare's Language Legacy

  

Daily Gratitude Year 14-Day 210: Today, I am grateful for Shakespeare's language legacy. 

It was Miss Margaret Mills who introduced me to Shakespeare. Some hated it. Once I was able to work through the "modern" language of Shakespeare's day and find understanding, his genius became evident. Some of his phrasing still lives on in our conversations today. 

Observant, dramatic, sarcastic, and creativity come together in his works, and that is just the beginning of the many ways his work could be described. "Romeo and Juliet" has been the template for many modern love stories, although I prefer a less tragic end.  "Taming the Shrew" is another popular Shakespeare story to retell in a modern setting. 

This list of Shakespearean phrases reminds me of how art influences language. We often find ourselves using phrases from movies and music. Shakespeare's influence has remained for centuries. 

I grew up hearing "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailor take warning." The concept is in the Bible. Both Matthew and Luke record Jesus commenting on the skies forecasting the weather.  Language helps us frame, record, and share the world as we see it. 

"He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times." -Matthew 16:2-3

Language is truly fascinating. Shakespeare left his mark. 

Today, I am grateful for Shakespeare's language legacy.