We have, in our garden, three healthy Coral Bell Azaleas that came into full bloom last weekend and as we drove up our driveway Jean and I both noticed a mass of gorgeous yellow butterflies fluttering all around the area of the bushes. I just sat there sopping up that joy those butterflies brought along with them, storing it up. You know, I think that often God, along with burdens, sends along special moments like that for us when He feels we need them. Sometimes we just need propping up and, through nature, He provides us with uplifting moments like that to help balance the sorrow that invades our lives. Maybe it is a dove landing on our porch rail or out back sighting an oriole or a bluebird. I’m certain that we won’t be sent anything that we can’t handle, together.
I experienced one of God’s special gifts that you mentioned in1976. I was trying to understand the loss of our first son at birth two weeks earlier. As I walked around our front yard on that unusually warm February morning I saw that our bed of daffodils had started shooting up green spikes signalling to me that just as Mother Nature was tending to her business, my God would carry us through this period of grief in our lives.