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July 10, 2003 - "Burnished Gold"
Welcome to 2TheHeart!
"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn." ~Henry David Thoreau
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GIVE TO HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN & BABIES! Visit the page of cancer patient and Woman Extraordinaire Gery E. Drahn, where you can help her in her drive to bring books, stuffed animals, and baby blankets to hospitalized children and babies! www.2theheart.com/Papillon
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I truly love Mary-Ellen's writing and her heart. This is for all of us nature-lovers! Thank you Meg!
"Burnished Gold"
By Mary-Ellen Grisham
"You'd better not stay too long," I whispered through the partly open window to the lone robin still visiting our backyard birdbath. It was late October, and most of the robins were gone.
I like to think that the robin understood me but that he determinedly ignored my soft suggestion. I knew he loved the backyard with its shady trees and bushes, the birdbath, and the feeders. He also enjoyed the thick, shaggy spruce out front where he roosted at night.
"Some birds get too old to migrate," said my husband, coming into the dining room as he followed my vision out of the double windows.
"I don't think he's too old," I replied. "He just likes our yard and doesn't want to leave."
I was remembering the information in my bird book that showed southern Illinois in a strip of country where some bird species are doing less migrating.
"Perhaps he will stay here for the winter," I suggested thoughtfully.
And indeed, I believe our plucky yard guest did stay. Our weather was not severe except in January and February, and I kept bread bits, popcorn kernels, cereals, and crumbs under the skirt of the spreading spruce. The spruce--a habitat for wild rabbits, birds, and the occasional squirrel--offered cozy shelter from the winter snows, and I'm sure the small creatures were grateful for the handouts.
Come Spring, the plucky robin was grazing our front yard for worms. I recognized his uniquely placed white feather. His once smooth orange breast was faded in small patches as if the cold and frost had mottled his colors.
Looking out the front door screen, I said, "God loves speckled and spotted creatures too."
The robin looked up--then took off in a small rhapsody of flight, over the bushes lining our porch and then soared back through the porch itself out to the branches of the sprawling spruce.
It was as if he were saying, "Whoopee!--God loves me, and I am so happy here."
Throughout the summer, I have seen the "speckled" robin pacing the dappled lawn, harvesting worms, and delightedly splashing his wings in the birdbath. He seems to be socializing with the other birds and enjoying the breezes. The mottled breast does not matter to him. He is content. This is his place, his home.
I have recently been reading a book in which the author stresses God's boundless love for man. Even with the dramatic example of the Crucifixion, God's ability to love each of us so completely has sometimes been hard for me to grasp. The concept of God's personal love for each of us seems a bit unreal to me, almost beyond comprehension.
Now, I think of the plucky robin...and of my love for all the little creatures of the earth. It is only a rough, somewhat suggestive analogy, but my appreciation of all the small creatures just because they are God's creation is a little like His love for all of us. We are his beloved creatures, His created beings. He love us unconditionally as we are. Yet he gently leads us to be all that we can be, each one unique and special in His sight.
And like the robin happily at home in our yard, sometimes we get too comfortable on this lovely earth. We do not want to leave to go to our next place of being. Yet God still waits for us to come happily home to Him. The joy and loveliness of the place He has prepared for each of is beyond our imagining.
The flaws and shortcomings, the speckles of sin, and the mottling from our determined and often wayward will fade in the light of His enduring love. At last, we are in the Presence of God, content in our heavenly home, and it is all the joy and belonging we will ever need.
(c)2003 Mary-Ellen Grisham
meginrose@empowering.com Mary-Ellen is a Christian writer living in Godfrey, Illinois, with her husband and son. Currently, she is editing a twice-monthly Christian ezine and participating in Angels2theHeart. Her most recent 2theHeart stories were The Sharing Garden, Heart Cakes and Critter Cards, and The Parting of the Ways. Her poem, Summer's Comforter, placed second in the 2theHeart 2003 Poetry Contest.
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BOUTIQUE! Check out 2TheHeart's online boutique with books, candles, crafts, angels, soaps, cards and much more from our own online family members! www.2theheart.com/boutique
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The Letter Box:
Dear Ronnie,
What a beautiful love story. I thoroughly enjoy and learn from all your writings - please continue to share your stories. God bless you!
Mary Nova Scotia, Canada
Ay Ronnie, tha's reight, there's nowt like True Luv (Yorkshire lingo). Aren't we blessed, like Mike and Millie, to have found it!!! When my first husband, Stan was rushed to hospital once, I was asked to call our sons urgently but didn't, as they lived long distance and I saw no point in them rushing up to see their dad die. I called the elders from church and, as they gave him a blessing, his blood pressure shot up from below 60 to almost 100, amazing the nurses. The men were a bit frightened at what they had done. 'Have we made him worse?' one whispered anxiously. No, it was just the opposite, they had brought him back to life and, although terminally ill, he lived to fight another day.
I had to laugh one day, when a visitor asked what time my shift ended. I spent the whole of visiting hours sitting holding Stan's hand, getting drinks etc and the visitor thought I worked there, because whatever time he came, I was there. But Stan would have been there for me. He had heart trouble, 'I always knew I was a clot!' he laughed. Sense of humour to the end.
Margaret Drysdale, Yorkshire, England
Hi Susan,
I hope you are having a blessed day. My sister forwarded one of your stories to me and it brought tears to my eyes. It's the one about the homeless lady. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I have printed the list of books on the net and will be buying them, not all at once but eventually I hope to have them all.
My name is Jannette Mattadeen and I live in Jamaica, West Indies. Hope you can visit our beautiful country one day if you have not already done so.
Keep up the good work and may God continue to bless and inspire you as you provide good reading for those of us who like to read but can't pen a story.
~Jannette Mattadeen
Jamaica
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Making a difference, one story at a time!
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