Encouragement From a Little Bird

Sometimes it is the simplest of things that brings a blessing and I am convinced that at times, God sends birds to encourage me.

My last post concerned a lost cat that wandered into our yard.  He was here for a couple of days during which time I became somewhat attached to him, going so far as to give him a name - Buster.  But through a tattoo in his ear I was able, reluctantly, to return him to his owner.  This  brought back memories of my dear departed Pokey, who died in her sleep at four years old, in December of 2011.

I began to search for cats online but since we live on Vancouver Island, i am limited as to the number of shelters in my area.  Every time I would see a cat that interested me, it would be updated with "adoption pending."  Not only that but being a senior lady, I think that the cat would outlive me, not to mention that I am allergic to cat scratches and we have a little dog that is not used to cats.  It seemed that my desire for a cat was not meant to be.

A couple of days ago I was sitting in the back yard thinking of the last "adoption pending" cat while watching the constant activity of the birds coming and going in the yard.  As I sat in my chair, I felt a bird land on my shoulder!  This was a first.  I turned and it left my shoulder to land on the fence a few feet away.  It was a little Pine Siskin, a type I have seen only a couple of times in our yard.

Surely this was not an accident.  In the bible, in the book of 1 Kings chapter 17, the Lord tells Elijah the prophet to hide by the brook called Cherith, and that he has commanded the ravens to feed Elijah by the brook and "the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening..." (verse 6).  God is in control of everything and I believe he sent the little Pine Siskin to encourage me, just as a couple of years ago He sent a hummingbird to hover in front of my face when I was sick and again in our back yard.  I asked the Lord if  I was going to go to heaven and immediately the hummingbird came in front of my face.  Since then I have been feeding the hummingbirds and at times when I am sitting and watching the hummingbird feeder, and praying, a bird will come to the feeder.  In the case of wanting a cat, thus far I do not have one but I have the many birds that come to our yard for food and water.

I don't know what is going to happen.  Perhaps I will yet find a cat, perhaps it is not the Lord's will for me to have a cat, but I know that as long as we live in this home, I will have the company of the birds and for that I am very thankful.

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vcg

Fly Away - A Devotion

Psalm 90:10  "The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."

Yesterday we drove to the town of Chemainus, down to the beach where there was a lovely breeze and an outgoing tide.  In the Cowichan Valley where we live it was very hot, almost 90 degrees, and so this breeze was very welcome.  We sat on a log which was shaded by a large tree, enjoying the relief from the oppressive heat back home.

Offshore there is a lighthouse on a rocky knoll and we watched as a group of people set out to walk to it.  If it was an incoming tide, this would have been a very dangerous thing to do as they had small children with them who could walk most of the way but had to be carried the rest of the way. Had the tide been incoming, they would have been trapped.  One of the men was carrying what looked like a large blow-up chair and husband and I assumed that they were going to set out blankets and spend some time on the rocks which had no shade at all.  We couldn't have been more wrong. Not long after they all reached the rocks and had gathered together, we saw a huge dragon-fly climbing up in the sky and we thought it was a kite, because one of the men appeared to be holding a large container where the string would be.  But then the dragon-fly got too far away to be a kite, and we saw that it was a helium balloon shaped like a dragon-fly.  It flew higher, over the trees and towards the town of Chemainus.  Then the container turned out to be a large red heart-shaped helium balloon which climbed into the sky and followed after the dragon-fly.  There was another balloon as well, but it was smaller and darker, I don't know what it was. 

After the balloons were released, the group of adults and children made their way back to the shore and husband and I left the beach and drove home.  I wondered what this balloon-releasing meant.  That was certainly the intention of the trip out to the rocky knoll, it seemed rather a long way to walk to entertain children, and it was the adults that released the balloons, not the children. I came to the conclusion that it was a memorial to someone who had recently passed away, or perhaps a memorial to someone who had passed away years ago. At any rate, when I got home I looked up "fly away" at Blue Letter Bible and settled on Psalm 90:10 "The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."