We’ve been having a heat wave in New South Wales. Temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of Sydney. Up to 47 degrees Celsius in the west of the state, and 42 degrees Celsius here on the lake.
We really know it’s hot here on the lake when the Rosella’s come to bathe in our bird bath. Beautiful colourful little birds, they are also very shy and very wary.
When they come around there is often not even enough time to pick up the camera and focus before they are gone.
Usually they will just stop briefly to drink.
For them to stay and repeatedly and actually swim we know they must be hot!
As humans, the constant heat and humidity experienced in heat waves make us feel parched, dry and exhausted. But sometimes the same thing happens with our prayer life and our relationship with God. When this happens we find ourselves pleading:
“Now, Lord, do it again!
Restore us to our former glory!
May streams of your refreshing flow over us
until our dry hearts are drenched again.”
Psalm 126:4 (The Passion Translation)
And Our Good, Good Father does not disappoint. Like the Word tells us:
“Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.” Isaiah 35:5-7
Sadly as is usual at the end of the constant hot weather on the East Coast of Australia we often receive a drenching from the heavens as well. This one that arrived was more like a mini cyclone bringing down trees and washing away the ‘kingmaker’. The supreme perch. It was levelled, nothing left to salvage
However typical of our bird life the creative Egret managed to make the best out of a piece of debris left by the storm, which afforded him a perch even it was even just six or so inches above the water. The cormorant that had shared his previous perch (above), didn’t see the value of this small gift and hasn’t returned.
This reminds me of God’s gifts and,we so often miss the small ones, just as the cormorant did.
“Every gift, God freely gives is good and perfect,
streaming down from the heavens
with no hidden shadow or darkness.”
James 1:17 (The Passion Translation)
So as an old Sunday School song says,
“Count your blessings, count them one by one
Count your blessings see what God has done!”
Johnson Oatman, Jr., pub.1897
Marilyn
