There’s a man working in my teeny tiny back yard. Leftover leaves are filling a bucket and soil from the back of a truck is being spread around. The sun is shining and Lady Antebellum is singing in my living room.
It’s good to be home and spending time in this kitchen, looking out. Soon I will go for a walk and breath in some of that blue sky fresh air.
Today, I am thankful for eyes to see, ears to hear, tastebuds with which to enjoy fresh creations and fingers touching, this keyboard and the things around me.
Reminded
that some don’t have these luxuries. The senses I mean. I often forget that nothing in this world can be assumed.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I am seeing lots of it.
Thankful
Lord, please keep reminding me of how thankful I should be and am not.
When I am and do, thank you, the blessing is beyond what I can ask or think.

Psalm 138 is David’s prayer from a full heart.
Two verses jumped when I read them
:1 I give you thanks Lord, with my whole heart
:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life

My life, here in the city, is not in danger as far as I can see, but tomorrow is not visible and I really cannot proclaim safety as a For Sure. I am dependent upon the creator, the one who designed the path, to decide what tomorrow will look like.
I pray
I ask
never assuming.
Trusting and counting on Him to decide what is best, for me,
What will glorify Him in my life.
All the while asking that He will grant me another day to use these senses He blesses me with, to live.

Yesterday I celebrated life with a friend.
God decided to drop us right into the mess of each others lives about 27 years ago.
We have had our ups and downs. Tears shed, secrets whispered, much laughter shared. Life is a heap of all kinds of good and bad but when you dig around in it there is beauty.
Seeds of joy and love are planted and they grow, with the help of some feeding and top dressing.
Rich, fertile, dirty, smelly experiences grow beautiful maturity and wisdom.
Well
The life we celebrated last night is not the usual.
We celebrated New Life.
You see, she has been born twice and yesterday was the twentieth birthday of the second.
“What?” You ask
“No Way”. you say
Truth
There can be no second without the first so I am thankful God created her. Put her here.
She teaches me
I teach her
The second birth was her response to What God did for her on The cross. Remember last weekend we celebrated Jesus. His life, death and resurrection.
Twenty years ago my friend recognized that Sin ~ because every single person created is a sinner ~ had separated her from God.
He opened her eyes to her need and she recognized that life without a relationship with Him is really no life at all.
I was present that day twenty years ago and there was great rejoicing as God, His angels and I welcomed her into the family. God adopted her and she has never looked back.
So last night the celebration was pretty special.
She is thankful, still.
I am thankful, also.
God’s arms are wrapped around her.
He is holding all the details of her life and releasing them just a few at a time.

Today is a beautiful day to celebrate life.
The original, coming into the world.
The second, being brought into the Family of God.

1 Peter 1:8,9
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.