Looked out at my backyard this morning and saw a rabbit, four or five crows and about the same number of squirrels. Butterflies and bees were swarming my golden yellow Esperanza. What I couldn’t see were the many other life forms living out there. Our earth teems with life. We have a life-giving, life-sustaining God who delights in his creation. I know he does because his pleasure shines through what he has made, inspiring us to glorify him every day. When I read John 1 and imagine how it might have been in the beginning when Jesus created everything from nothing, my mind reels! All the light and color blazing into the stark blackness must have been incredibly beautiful!

Right after posting “Well, I Did Ask!” about the tree frog on my window, I got a phone call. Daughter Liana was laughing and I was reminded of her collection of frog memorabilia. We have given her various frog-related gifts, knowing her love of all things froggy. But what I didn’t know was that FROG was an acronym she used to remind her of God’s unfailing love and concern for us, no matter what we are going through. She said for her FROG stands for Fully Rely On God. So that’s another message I received from the tree frog on the window. Thank you, God (and Liana). How many times do we need to be reminded that God is always there for us, no matter what! So whenever you see a frog from now on, let it be a reminder of what F-R-O-G stands for.

As I was pacing around talking to God one day, asking for direction and guidance in my life, I noticed a shadow on the blinds on a glass patio door. That’s odd, I thought. So I slowly opened the blinds, and looking back at me from outside, eyeball to eyeball, was a frog. I’m sure a tree frog because that little guy climbed right up that glass like Spider Man. But why would a tree frog be climbing up my patio door. Maybe it symbolized something. I found frogs symbolize transformation and productiveness (fertility) and change. Was God trying to tell me something in one of his many creative ways? I did ask after all. I want to be productive and certainly need spiritual transformation, but am I the only one who finds change a bit scary? How many times, and ways, does God have to remind us to trust his will in our lives!

When I telephone my kids, they probably wonder what’s wrong. That’s because I rarely telephone anyone. I love hearing from them though. I can enjoy hours on the phone with any of my kids. It’s not that we don’t communicate; I communicate with them daily through text and email messages. I often pray before I write, asking God’s Spirit to flow in encouraging and reassuring ways. One day, when I was praying, came these thoughts: There are people you need to call. The Holy Spirit flows through the telephone as well as through your writing. Whoa, scary! Was God expecting me to be a part of some telephone calling service? (I did call three people right away who I knew he meant for me to call.) No, God let me know later, but at times you need to call people. An email, text, even a sympathy card, is not enough. Thank you, Lord.

It’s the battle of the hummingbirds. They intimidate the butterflies and the bees when they swoop in on the flowers in my garden, but their aggressive nature defeats them. When more than one hummingbird shows up they spend most of their time dive bombing and chasing each other than attending to the flowers. This gives the butterflies and bees plenty of time to gather their nectar. We can look to nature’s beauty and be inspired by God’s glorious creation, and we can also learn from its negative aspects. As Paul wrote to the Galatians: “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Gal. 5:15, NIV). Let’s heed the apostle’s words and live in unity in Christ.

When I read about people who memorize whole books of the Bible, I’m impressed. More than impressed, I’m jealous. I know various favorite scriptures, the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23. I’ve been working on Colossians 3 for some time now. Not a whole book, not even a whole chapter, but even so it doesn’t come easy. If I don’t keep at it, I forget what I’ve already memorized. Like Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer, what I memorized when I was young stays with me. But I don’t blame it all on age. For most of us, with today’s smart phones, we don’t have to memorize anything anymore. I used to have all these phone numbers in my brain. Now I hardly remember my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience of carrying around this pocket-size, super computer with me, but with every technological gain, it seems, there’s also a loss.

Several weeks ago, I spent the day with two daughters looking for furniture. As I’m from the generation that buys items expected to last forever, it was way past time. Like many of my clothes, some of my furniture is decades old. I’m not a shopper so that’s why my daughters went with me. They have a good eye for bargains and they love spending my money! I couldn’t help relating this experience to what the Holy Spirit is doing with us. Roll up that faded area rug of anger and replace it with love. Move out that creaky chair of greed and replace it with generosity. Carry away that rundown couch of unforgiveness and replace it with merciful understanding and compassion for others. It’s with some resistance the old familiar and comfortable are replaced, but what joy is the result!

Do you love watching the Olympics? I do! It’s fun to see the world’s finest athletes compete. Ideally, they put aside political and cultural differences to come together to see who is the best in their particular sport. Even countries whose leaders routinely fire threatening warnings across each other’s borders are represented there. I realize it’s not always as harmonious as it may seem, but seeing various countries’ competitors encouraging one another makes me happy. Every few years it’s like the dawn of a spring day at the end of a dark, miserably cold winter. Maybe the Olympics are as close as we’ll ever come to a peaceful relationship among nations in this age, but I’ll take it!

“Are you hungry?” the pastor asked. He was reading from John 6. The crowds followed Jesus to be amazed by his healing miracles, to hear his intriguing sermons and, if they were honest, to be fed. Can you picture yourself as one privileged to see Jesus face to face. What would your motives have been, or mine? Would we have done any better than those people back then? We would have wanted much of the same as they. And, how about my motives even now? What am I hungry for? Is it for miracles that don’t last? May my search for Jesus be much more than for healings or material blessings or even daily forgiveness. May I seek him, the true bread of life, out of love.

She’s moving! Our little church lady is leaving our community. I saw the estate sale sign but it didn’t register it was for her home. She was a fine golfer and added a lovely soprano voice to our choir. She was the worship leader at the community chapel service, and she was a force to reckon with. That’s why I call her our “church lady.” (Not to her face, of course.) Once at a chapel board meeting she asked for donations to the food bank. When she saw what was collected, she said it wasn’t enough from a community our size and she went around the room collecting more from everyone!  Her failing eyesight doesn’t allow her to drive anymore, so she made the hard decision. Our best wishes and prayers go with you, dear June.