Thankful In All: in and through me

I could faintly hear Babydoll crying through my closed bedroom door. The clock read 5:50am. It has happened a few times--crying in her sleep during the wee hours of the morning. My alarm had already gone off and was gearing up for a snooze repeat. We have learned though to just let her be for a minute and she usually settles back down into sleep. Since our house guest shares an adjoining wall, I decided to just get up with her anyway. She was mostly happy and ready for breakfast as usual.

I got busy cleaning the kitchen (left unfinished from last night...gasp!) and started transferring the loads of laundry that needed to get done. By the time Bundle Brother woke up 45 minutes later, we were well into our morning around here. He ate breakfast and vegged with some PBS morning shows and Babydoll was ready for a nap to make up for her lost minutes. Meanwhile my love came back from his morning run and was upstairs to take a shower before heading out to work. Everyone had something they were doing. I grabbed my One Year Bible and pulled up a chair on the back deck to read in the peace and quiet.

The last couple days have been AMAZING weather here. No humidity and low temperatures. The dog came out there with me and sat on my left loving every pet and rub he got from my dangling hand. It felt like waking up on an early morning after tent camping. Cool, crisp, and still out. And yet there were noises. Noises of birds and crickets and cicadas. Sounds of cars and airplanes and trees. It was beautiful.

I looked toward the neighbor behind us and saw the sun shining on the back of their house. It made the leaves on one tree glow bright green.

My eyes moved to the lawn in our back yard and I saw the sun shining across the grass.

Then I looked toward the source of light and saw it beaming through a tree in our yard.

That is when I noticed it. A bright red dead branch in the front. Clearly visible and drawing attention to itself.

The rest of the tree was growing healthy and green while this particular branch was not. Then I looked closer.

There was another red branch up higher, less visible and not easy to reach. I only saw it because I was now looking for it. The healthy limbs were doing a good job of covering that one up.

Because my eyes were looking up toward the light, I saw them. They were exposed. I immediately wanted to remove them. The sun was shining light on them. It was taking away from the growth of all the other branches. The one in front seemed manageable to deal with. I knew it wouldn't be easy to remove the higher branch though. It would take more work, effort. It would require peeling back other branches to expose the dead one. Its camouflage didn't remove its existence all together.

I see it in the light though. I can't ignore it now. It must be dealt with.

LORD, please help me to start each day in your cool, crisp, peaceful presence. Light up my life with your Word. Show me even more corners of my heart that I have not yet surrendered. I trust in You.

When I came back inside after reading two days in my One Year Bible, I saw this on the side of our house before I walked in...