Life is full of unexpected joys when I slow to notice.
How many times have I looked out our front window to see this grand old house—a patriarch of our neighborhood only just changing hands for the first time now that its family has grown up and old and moved on to the old folks’ home…
There’s something permanent and friendly about its demeanor with the old apple trees all ‘round in bloom…an unexpected joy.
…as is living in this, ‘our town’ beside the sea…Nothing earth shaking happens here. We’re a sleepy place, I suppose, but it is an unexpected joy to look down and see spring coming to our town and know that this is home, for now…
The wild strawberries are in bloom again…masterpieces that yield a quiet joy when one stoops to see their simple faces…
Mother’s Day has come ‘round again to remind me of this unexpected joy of being a mother to a brood that rises up to bless my heart –and fill my mouth with good things they’ve in turn created…
And then there is the sea so close at hand…the meandering ride along the seawalk on Mother’s Day for the joy of a shared afternoon, the dipping of the feet in the ocean for the first time of the season—shiver—in anticipation of warmer days to come… and nearly treading on this disguised anemone…
And while we lean down to study the kelp underfoot, an eagle cries from his perch in the sky…
Days later in the garden, I look up spade in hand, from digging earth to bury potatoes and spy my raving beauty of a rhododendron putting on a show in her shady knoll where yard meets woods…I hadn’t seen it coming. Unexpected joy!
And today, climbing reluctant from warm covers to meet a new and unknown day, I peer through my sheer drapes to see Miss Crabapple in her best dress, with primly crossed ankles, morning sun brightening her blush… Just when all the other blossoms begin to fade she is at her brightest. Unexpected joy. This too a gift to us…
How good to be ‘the sheep of His pasture, the flock under His care.’ Ps.95:7NIV— An Unexpected Joy
–LS
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also.
The sea is His, and he made it: and His hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Ps.95:2-7
