The bird feeder

Oh my gosh! Birds are the most amazing creatures!

My aunt and cousins gave me money to buy something to remember my dad by--when he passed away several years ago. So, I bought a bird feeder!

It's hanging up outside our dining room window and has provided hours of amazement! We've experimented with different kinds of food and have settled on safflower seeds and suet (for the woodpeckers).

Squirrels detest safflower seed, so that's been a positive choice. But the suet?! You would think that we put out nectar from the gods!

The woodpeckers come in ones and twos, the nut hatches come sailing in to land upside down and peck away, but the starlings come barreling in--screeching, pecking the suet and any other bird that gets close, hogging the entire feeder until they all swirl away. They are like a tribe of completely unruly and bratty children! Not a single refinement among the lot of them!

The sparrows and chickadees nervously land, pluck up one seed and fly up to the higher branches to break open the outer covering and get at the little piece of seed inside.

We see a sprinkling of tit mouse, wrens, doves, and cardinals...all colors, all sizes, some ground feeders, some shy, mostly just hungry!

Reminds me of people! :-)

I Choose!

As I look back over 2010 and into 2011, I am amazed at all the things that have happened! Death, new life, traveling, mundane-everyday stuff, great books read, emotional and spiritual growth...on and on!

So, what does this coming year hold? Probably more of the same! And, is there a point to all of this? Does what I think, or do, or say really matter in the larger scheme of things? I think so! I might not be famous or well-known or any of those things, but my life has significance in God!

I'm learning that He delights in me...dotes on me...is crazy about me. I was in his heart and mind before the universe was made. He had already planned out my existence. These thoughts are too high and mighty for me to really take in and comprehend. I seem to see more of my failures and faults than I see worth....but God doesn't look at me that way!

And so, what I decide to do or not do, even today, means more than I can possibly understand. What I say to others, how I respond to each person that passes in and out of my life, how I treat Rusty, how much time I spend on the computer or not, what I think about...all of it has meaning. God wants my whole heart! All of it.

I'm learning about "servant hood." What does that look like? How can I actually serve others--even those closest to me with an attitude of gentleness and graciousness? Once again, I see my failures and faults, but God does not look at me through those "tinted glasses" of a finite being. He sees me through a vast heart of love and mercy that I cannot comprehend!

So, today...I choose to place my life, my hands and feet, my mouth, my whole being into His most capable hands! I give myself to the workings of the Holy Spirit and I wait to see what kind of great adventure lies before me.

It might just be vacuuming, dusting, ironing, cooking--or it might be something high and grand! Whatever it is...I will keep in mind how much God loves me and what I'm worth to Him!