“God loves a cheerful giver”

2 Corinthians 9:7

My son gave me something sweet today.  A little gift of nature.  And an hour or so later, it was gone.

My kids have given me many bits of nature in their lives.  I’ve got feathers and leaves, twigs and pine cones, pebbles and bark, petals and flowers.  I’ve even got a butterfly’s wing that someone found in the yard.  But this was a first.

You’d think that maybe the giving of seed pods and sea shells would have diminished as my kids got older.  Handing mommy a dandelion is such a toddler thing to do, right?  But they know I find such little trinkets beautiful and interesting, and I’m happy to say, so do they, albeit to a lesser extent.  I will consider myself a successful mom if my children see beauty in a dried leaf, just as they can in a living one.  Have you ever smelled preserved and dried rose petals?  Sweet and delicate, regardless of what they smelled like in bloom.

But today, my boy gave me the gift of dew.  One drop.  On a blade of grass.  We were sitting on the front porch this morning, and he was admiring all the sparkling magnification of the dew drops.  So he managed to carefully pluck a blade of grass without disturbing the drop of dew that was glistening on it. 

Have you ever thought about how some gifts are much more temporary than others?  I mean, nothing on this earth lasts forever, but there are gifts and blessings that we get from others that are intangible, transient. 

There is simply not enough appreciation for the blessings and miracles of our everyday lives.

~ “The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah 40:8

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