Devotions

The other day, when life was not too busy, and the morning was cool, Bernie and I walked together to the end of our street. The street is a cul-de-sac, and there are just three houses to walk past before reaching our mail box, and the end of the street.

After that short stroll through the neighborhood we walked about five or six minutes more, following a trail through the woods, through a prairie area, and through another patch of woods (so deep you can not see the sky when you look up...)
And then we came to the lake...

...and to this bench.

It was a really special treat to walk down to the lake with our devotional reading.

We sipped coffee, read, talked, prayed, and savored God's goodness to us.

We marveled at God's creation.

(A dragonfly still asleep, wings like small windows framing the view.)

For years and years and years Bernie rose before dawn, and would be gone before day break, heading to work to provide for our family. Time together in the morning was rare indeed.

Being together in the morning now is especially sweet. We share our coffee, the paper, and talk at the beginning of the day.
Some times we have devotions over the breakfast table, sometimes a little later sitting together on the living room couch.

We had never gone to the lake for our morning devotional time before, but had often thought about it.
It was good the other day to make the dream become a reality.

The soft sounds of the lake and woods, the lapping of water and the song of the birds...so precious to us, we who grew up in the Southern California suburbs.

There have been tough times over the years. Times when it seemed as if the world conspired to destroy us, when our money, time, health, and relationship all seemed under attack.

But like the blue flower growing at the water's edge (with a bloom that will only last one day...) we may be scarred a bit, but nevertheless we continue to bloom.

It is God's grace and bounty to us.

We bloom.

Here, now, in these seasons of time, still together.