lots of words...

I remember being a little girl and looking out the car window at the stars and moon. We were riding home from a visit to my Grandma's house and I asked God to just do something up there so I could know He was real. Just a twinkling or shooting star would be all I needed. The doubts would pass and I would be certain He was there.

I think I've always been that way: searching, asking, hoping for God. There has never been a shooting star for me. No audible voice telling me He's real. He often doesn't do what I want Him to. Things I think would be super easy for Him.

I thought of myself as that little girl Saturday when I was shoveling my driveway. It had been a discouraging couple days for me and I had been full of doubt and weariness. I heard a strange noise and saw some birds land on the tree in my backyard. When I rounded the corner, I saw berries from our house ivy all over the ground.

The berries are blue and quite pretty in the winter. (But the ivy is overwhelming in the summer). The birds had been eating the berries and I began to think about how these berries had become fruit at just the right time. When the winter is long and there's not much for the birds to eat, the berries are ready for them.

This reminds me of fruit in my life. The kind that I produce as well as the provisions that God brings into my life when the winter is long and doubts abound. It felt hopeful to see the birds and berries. It was "fruit" for me.

It's not a shooting star or an audible voice, but it's God showing me His care. Maybe that's why I blog and take pictures of nature. I'm looking for signs of Him and I often am encouraged as He reveals Himself in the ordinary garden variety things to an ordinary garden variety jane.

Grace and Peace,
Jane