Sweet Reminders

This week we had the most beautiful Spring weather.  It is amazing how a sunny day can really lift your spirits and refresh your soul.  It also helps that I have been exercising and taking time out each day to just sit still for a moment and reflect each day.
This morning while I was doing a load of laundry, Rick quickly knocked on our glass door from the outside telling me to quickly grab my camera.  Of course, I ran to grab it in hopes of finding something amazing to make my "picture a day" (still going strong with that goal, by the way).   He led me to our front yard tree to find this:

Let me tell you, as much as this week was uplifting for me, it was also a little difficult on Thursday, as it would have been my Grandmother's 80th birthday.  Oh, how my heart yearns to have her with me today...she loved birds, particularly humming birds.  I can see her now getting a kick out of this sweet mama in her nest protecting her babies...that is exactly what my Grandmother did with her own children, and she was one of the best!
I believe that God brings special reminders to us like this little bird.  I am so thankful to be reminded that the Lord is always with us and he wants us to be joyful remembering our special loved ones who have gone to be with him in heaven.

One of my favorite songs, "Every Season", has lyrics that really speak to my heart when I see sweet signs of Spring like this.

Every evening sky, an invitation 

To trace the patterned stars 

And early in July, a celebration 

For freedom that is ours 

And I notice You 

In children’s games 

In those who watch them from the shade 

Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder 

You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered 

To the harvest time 

Forfeiting their leaves in late September 

And sending us inside 

Still I notice You when change begins 

And I am braced for colder winds 

I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come 

You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven 

Finally falls asleep 

Wrapped in blankets white, all creation 

Shivers underneath 

And still I notice you 

When branches crack 

And in my breath on frosted glass 

Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter 

You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced 

Teaching us to breathe 

What was frozen through is newly purposed 

Turning all things green 

So it is with You 

And how You make me new 

With every season’s change 

And so it will be 

As You are re-creating me 

Summer, autumn, winter, spring