the goodness of God

We have been enjoying such beautiful spring weather this week. The tree outside my kitchen window is home to bright red cardinals who come in conclave to the branches, singing sweet songs to me as I do my dishes. How lovely to have them there, my paycheck for all those months of feeding them sunflower seeds when the snow covered the ground.

I have been contemplating God's goodness to me, to my family, to the human family. This morning as I made my bed, I began to think of His goodness in the small things of life....

a featherbed....is there anything more delightful than climbing into bed at night after a long, stressful day and sinking into a featherbed? God gave us sleep. God gave us the geese who provide fluffy white and gray feathers to place into featherbeds! It brings comfort to weary bones, luxury at $49.95.

a glass of iced tea....how could anything taste any better, leisurely sipped while on the front porch? Surely God gave us tea to bring peace and calm to the storms of life. Some say that when life hands us lemons, we should make lemonade. I say, make iced tea and toss in a lemon slice!

pink and yellow tulips....God could have created only red ones, but God loves variety....look at His creation, look at the people He has made! My neighbors planted hundreds of tulip bulbs in the 30 or more years they lived in their home and now, three families later, I can look out of my upstairs hallway window and enjoy the fruits of their labors. Pink and yellow tulips....as Martha would say, its a good thing.

a baby eating a popsicle....instead of creating all of mankind the way He made Adam, God chose to give us babies. And a baby eating a popsicle is the best kind of baby....sticky, sweet, pink from head to toe, red dye not withstanding.

good books, good thoughts....isn't it great that God did not create us in the same way a new computer arrives at your house....all uploaded and ready to go? What a wonderful gift from God to be able to learn something new every day, to have an idea you have never had before, to read a poem or an essay and share the emotions and thoughts of the writer, often someone who lived in another time and in another place. What a great gift to us, this gift of the human mind.

Jesus is our high priest....this is no small thing...all this talk in the past few weeks of the new pope....of what hope is there in this? My Catholic friend sent me a picture of the old pope, two pictures actually, and a novena, prayers written for me to say to a saint to whom I do not pray. How sad to be bound up in a system where you do not enjoy the freedom of knowing who we are as believers, of resting in His perfect peace. We have but one advocate with the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. No earthly man can take us to the throne of Grace; no man can keep us from going there either! How good is this!