Perched Beside Provision

There are days when we are met with great challenges and tests to the mettle of our lives. We have unexpected hardships that knock on our door, we gaze at a checkbook that holds a single digit balance while looking at a stack of unopened bills or we receive a report from the doctor that tells us that our time frame of life has suddenly changed causing us to count the blessing of virtually every minute.

Life is fraught with hard times and challenges that test the stuff that we're made of and that's just a fact, however, we have been given every tool of provision that we need to get through the tough times. 

I have a hummingbird that paints the picture of that provision every single morning for me. He comes and lands on the iron rod that holds my hummingbird feeder and I smile. He comes knowing that I'll have placed the sweet nectar that he craves into that red bottle. He comes and sits and looks at me as if to say ”thank you for being an instrument of provision for me”. Now there are most certainly other places for his provision had I not hung that feeder and he would still be cared for by his maker but these days he comes if only to remind me of the faithfulness of provision that he perches next to. 

If we as human beings could only get a handle on the truth of that like my little humming bird. We have also been provided with a tool of provision that will carry us through and at the same time provide us with sweet nectar that will soothe our pain  and blanket us with care on the hard days. That provision is Gods Word. How many times are we in distress and sit, tear filled on the sofa, smack dab beside a Bible and have never picked it up? How often do we sit in our family rooms right next to a bookcase where dust gathers on the greatest treasure of care and provision that we are privileged to have?

We are like that hummingbird in every way being provided for yet we are perched and seemingly never notice the red feeder. We don't open the book to read the red words that were spoken by Jesus to teach us how to pray and how to love and how to endure. 

We become filled with doubt where our next dollar and meal will come from and we cry ourselves to sleep with the words ”why God” on our lips.

You're perched right beside your provision and its there waiting for you to ingest the sweet nectar of healing and comfort. The red words point straight to the one who has already provided and sacrificed it all so that you can know and trust exactly like that little hummingbird. 

So as you sit perched from wherever you are today, stop and notice! Notice the beautiful provision. I promise you it will feed your wounded soul and gratify every hunger pang that you'll ever have. It's beautiful and right there at your fingertips. 

Midnight Weavers

There is a sort of magic that happens outside of my house in the wee hours. That's when the weavers come out. They can't be seen too many times during the day but they work their magic when all gets quiet and the darkness settles over the mountains. It's sort of a wondrous thing to behold. The sun comes up over the horizon and floods the nooks and crannies of my front porch and their handiwork becomes visible. At times their weaving is highlighted by little droplets of dew that make their amazing works of art sparkle when the sunlight hits them. I find it simply beautiful. Now, I haven't always found it beautiful. When I first moved into this house in the country I saw these striking works of art as "nuisance cobwebs". I would come out onto the porch and find them everywhere, every morning! I could go around with my broom and sweep them off of the chair rungs, the storm door and my plants on the rails grumbling as I swept away their industrious nights work. I soon realized that it was simply fruitless. As I sat down to drink my coffee with the sunrise one day, sighing that I had to brush yet another cobweb off of my rocker, I succumbed at last to the futility of my morning task. I sat rocking and noticing really how gifted and creatively talented that God had made these little midnight weavers. In my quest for web-free living, I had not stopped long enough to see the beauty of their work. Every fiber that they wove had to be attached to something. Every circle that they spun connected to every anchor strand as if a master architect had painstakingly designed it. They worked their weaving towards the center forming a beautiful tapestry of lines that are breathtaking when I took the opportunity to actually notice their form. Their little canvases were formed everywhere; they worked their magic between my porch rails. Their creative work could be seen on my wicker settee  and they even connected the branches of my potted jade tree on the post. There seemed to be no nook or corner that was left untouched. The morning light revealed their nighttime spinning and it was really quite glorious. Their soul task and focus was to weave their web, the tool that God instinctively designed in them so that they could capture their food. Small bugs and insects get caught in the web and the midnight weavers gather their sustenance from the prisoners of their handiwork. It all is wonderfully thought out and planned so they can be provided for as our Masters plan. The birds of the air do not toil or spin but they know that their Creator has provided food in nature to meet their needs. The deer find the streams when they are thirsty and the eagle has the sharpest of vision allowing him to soar and swoop down to find his provision. Our creator designed all of it and it's a perfect and beautiful dance. It allows us to see and be reassured that He will do the same for us when we need our provision. And just like my little midnight weavers, my life needs to have anchor points. I need my relationships and family to anchor me. I need fellowship with other believers to encourage me. I need to study and read Gods Word to truly anchor me in my faith. All of these things form the warp of my life's tapestry. God will then make a finished work of me with all of the other strands of life situations, struggles, tears, joys and triumphs to form the weave of my tapestry. It's alll a part of the Master Architects design you see. Purposeful and perfect. It's all, I'm totally convinced of, a part of the amazing plan that once more points us ever to Christ and His perfect work. Col. 2:2 says, "I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ." How beautiful and purposeful and perfect is his plan for us. It's intricately woven for us, for our benefit. Isn't that just like a good good father, always and ever thinking of his children. I love his plan, woven just for me! It makes my heart smile. Now, every time I come out with my coffee to sit I purpose to see the handiwork of my little midnight weavers and be reminded of my own tapestry of love that is still 'under construction'. I truly desire it to be as glorious with every mornings light as the spinnings on my front porch. Thank you God for allowing me to see that beauty through your little midnight weavers.