Lessons From The Porch

Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?  Matthew 6:26

The porch is open…summer may now begin!  The flowers, the chairs, the cozy rug; it’s all part of the little piece of heaven on the north facing side of the house.  My morning prayer chair will sit empty for the better part of the next 3 months and the kitchen island discussions will change because both of those important activities have been re-routed to the porch.  I love the view, the breeze, the peace and the beauty.   I love all of it ,but two of my favorite parts of the porch are the wind chimes that were a gift from great friends  when Dave’s dad died and the hummingbird feeder that both hang from a Shepherds hook in the flower bed at the end of the porch. 

One night last week Dave and I watched some cranes in the corn field across the road.  They were huge!  I watched in wonder as their giant necks bobbed across the rows and called back and forth to each other.  As big as they were  I would have expected them to be clumsy but they were quite  graceful.  Even though the group was separated by a couple of acres every so often they’d  call to each other as if to make sure their friends were still nearby.  It was quite a lovely show.

The other morning there was quite a wind and I laughed out loud as I watched a determined little bird try to get to a different tree.  It was flying against the wind and the little thing was flapping his wings madly trying to go and it was if he was just stuck in the same place, mid-air, flapping and going nowhere.  After a few seconds of flapping, he let up just a bit and the wind sent him tumbling beak over tail feather straight back to the tree he was trying to leave.  I felt kind of sorry for the little guy but it was pretty hilarious!

Today we sat and watched in awe as the hummingbirds danced and flitted between the feeder at the end of the  porch and the maple tree just a few feet away.  Hummingbirds are fascinating to me.  Some sound so loud and others are quiet as a whisper.  We watched as one flew to a bare branch in the tree and as it landed it was so soft and tiny the branch showed absolutely no movement when he landed.

I’m not really a bird watcher but seeing these three groups of feathered friends showed me a lesson or two.  My porch is a great place to learn so here’s what hit me as I rocked in my glider.

*Each was a bird, they could fly, they had a beak and feathers but yet I marveled at how different they looked.  The size, the color, the shape, the sound….all so very different and with birds you’d never expect it to be any other way so why do we expect it to be that way with people?  Why do we try so hard to be like others and fit in when we, like the birds I watched from my porch were specifically created to be different?  God didn’t make a mistake when he used such originality and creativity with those bird. I need to remember the same is true for humans.  The Hummingbird isn’t better because it’s tiny and the Crane isn’t better because it’s big and graceful.  Each is perfect in it’s design!

*That bird wildly flapping against the wind must look just like me when I try to do things my own  way and forget to follow the will of the Father.  I wonder if he giggles at me too when I wind up right back where I started!

*I laugh when I think what it would look like if the Crane would try to daintily sip from the Hummingbird feeder or if the Hummingbird would try to cry out loudly to the friends in the beans an acre over.  I think of the times I try to put myself in places and situations where God hasn’t  invited me and it doesn’t look anything like that Hummingbird silently and stealthily  landing on the tree branch.

Thank you God for using your beautiful creation to teach me a thing or two this first week on the porch.  I’m looking forward to more lessons! Oh, and thank you for the beautiful world that surrounds my porch!  The only thing that would make my porch better is company so if you’re on Pratt Road plan to stop for a visit!

A Seed To Plant:  What are you gazing at this summer and what is the Father trying to teach you?​

Blessings on your day!