ENJOY THE SMALL ENCOUNTERS

Psalm 104:24 NLT O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.

Yesterday my neighbour, who is a primary school teacher, showed us her ten little fluffy chicks that have been loaned to her to show her first graders, and they were so cute. Just little fluff balls and I’d never held one before until she put one in my hands. It was an ‘Aw’ moment!😊

We never know what the day will bring and when it’s as lovely as that it really makes us smile. It was one of those moments which we don’t want to miss.

Earlier on we’d been out for a walk down a nearby path when a robin decided to fly right in front of us and stopped us in our tracks. He just stood and watched us for quite a while without flying away, and he was so tame it was amazing. Another moment. 

Then we walked on to the fishing pond and we were sitting enjoying the sun when a mummy duck and her five teenage ducklings deliberately swam towards us and all climbed out of the water and waddled up the embankment in order to come and check us out, before swimming off again. It was quite an entertainment - another moment!😊

They were fleeting, small encounters that made us smile, nothing earth shaking or momentous, just enjoying some of God’s creation. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it’s good to stop and be present in the moment with a thankful heart. They reminded me of the old hymn “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, so thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord, for all His love.” 

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.

Have a blessed weekend and whatever small encounters you have, may you be able to take the time to enjoy each moment of them, however fleeting they may be.x😊

We Plough the Fields and Scatter
We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land;
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand:
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above,
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all His love.

He only is the maker of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower, He lights the evening star;
The winds and waves obey Him, by Him the birds are fed;
Much more to us, His children, He gives our daily bread.

Chorus

We thank Thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest, our life, our health, and food;
No gifts have we to offer, for all Thy love imparts,
But that which Thou desirest, our humble, thankful hearts.

Author: Matthias Claudius (1782)

TIME FOR A DECLUTTER

Romans 12:2 NIV Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Now I don’t know whether you are a tidy or an untidy person but I’m a bit of both! My craft room often looks cluttered, but I do try to keep the rest of my house tidy most of the time.😊

As I was thinking about that I realised that a lot of us also have cluttered minds. We have clutter in our thinking from bad memories we should have let go of years ago, clutter from the upset maybe only yesterday or ten years ago, clutter from the anxieties about the future which have filled our minds with all the unhelpful things we really don’t want, because they steal our peace.

The trouble with clutter in our minds is, it doesn’t leave any room for new ideas or thoughts! Those times when God wants to give us a new uplifting thought but it gets buried under all the other rubbish we’re hanging on to, or we just haven’t any room left for His thoughts to come in and find a home.

There’s a TV programme which shows people with homes so badly cluttered they have to get people in to clear it all out and a lot of it goes to the tip. They’ve forgotten why they even keep things! Are we a bit like that? Have we hung on to wrong thoughts, wrong attitudes or memories and we can’t even remember why?

God wants to transform each and every one of us and He says He does it by transforming our minds, but we have to cooperate with Him in order for Him to do that. Maybe it’s time to stand back and ask the Holy Spirit to help us see what needs sorting out, to have a grand clear out and allow Him to show us what is clogging up our thinking, what needs throwing out and what’s worth keeping.

Like me, you’re probably getting the feeling it’s time to declutter our minds to make room for the new thing God is wanting to do, so we know what His good, pleasing and perfect will is for our future.😊 Amen.