We Saw Them Fly

Forty years ago, on a Mothers’ Day morning, we watched five baby robins flutter out of the nest in which they’d been nurtured—right on the sill outside our dining room. Ever since then, as bird families have grown in our yard, we’ve longed to see the same sight again. This morning we were on our patio reading our Bibles and listening to a family of baby wrens squawking for their breakfast, as they have for a couple of weeks. Suddenly, one of them stuck his head and neck out the round door of their house, pulled back in, and then bravely stumbled out into the flower pot below, soon to fly clumsily off to a nearby branch. Then another, and another! It was a sight to refresh the soul.

Yesterday I got an email from an SIM director in another country somewhere in the world. I wrote back, “Thanks. You’re a blessing.” It seemed little enough to say, after he’d gone to the trouble of promptly answering my request for information. I meant it, because I really did appreciate his speedy and helpful response. But I didn’t expect this back from him:

“I quickly wanted to tell you that your simple words of thanks and blessing were of particular encouragement to me today. It has been one of those days of tough decisions and feeling the full weight of leadership. And frankly not feeling a blessing to anybody. Never underestimate simple profound words. YOU were the blessing today.”

You know, we all have to send out so many emails, and it gets easy to be abrupt and just-the-facts-ma’am. What if we’d all take the extra 10 seconds to say something kind? Try it!

I took a longer-than-usual break at noon yesterday for lunch with my cousin. Oh, lovely! The rest of the day went quickly, but productively. How thankful I am to feel so well. A friend in Illinois wrote about some sweet words she’d just read in the Bible: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing!” Such good advice. So I sat down at the piano to play and sing a song before I prepared dinner last evening.

Praising,
Carol