I settle into my porch’s woven rocking chair after having raked piles of crunchy yellow-brown leaves at my North Carolina home. It is twilight in the mountains. The tops of the pines stand proud against an azure sky like a sap-scented congregation washed in the glorious gold of sunset, gently swaying in evening’s crisp-clover breeze.
I imagine them clapping their brushy hands in applause for the brilliant flame-and-rose display they face. They smile a happy benediction on this bountiful day of sunshine and warmth after the snow.
A young doe bounds across the gravel road below and into my meadow. She grazes amongst the shaggy, hay-colored broom — her large ears bending and twisting like an ever-searching radar.. She lifts her head, spots me rocking and holds her gaze.
Heifers are bawling for their dinner down the mountain, echoing hollow against the valley floor below. She breaks her gaze and bends her slender neck down again to nibble here and there at the fallen apples just a few yards in front of me, satisfied that we are friends, not foes.
I am in good fellowship here in my quiet solitude, perched high on top of the ridge. A rippling wall of wavy mountains, burnished tawny-lilac in the solar glow, stands sentinel over God’s country — beyond my meadow, beyond the valley below, enclosing all like an ancient, warm embrace. I catch my breath in wonder, my soul washed clean in the animated stillness.
Keeping watch, she draws nearer into my newly mown lawn. Then casually, calmed by my rhythmic rocking, her cautious lifted eyes catch mine, punctuating this moment.
We consider each other comfortably for a time, both breathing the easy respiration of co-celebrants of our Father’s wisdom and care.
“Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion. It can not be moved; it abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forever more.” Psalm 125:1-2 Berean Study Bible.
Oh Lord, you have drawn me out of my cover of broom and brush! Though we wait long for many as-yet unanswered prayers, You are always watching, always providing, always actively involved in hearing and, yes, answering our prayers. Daring now to enter the intimacy of your presence and grazing peacefully on your goodness, I give you again my faith in full and gently whisper my “grace” for this thanksgiving feast.
© ReadPsalm119.com. PHOTO: Benediction of the PInes, NC. by ReadPsalm119.com.
NOVEMBER THANK YOU!
LightWriter of lightroom (5wise.wordpress.com) will receive How to Memorize Scripture for Life by Andrew M. Davis as my thanks for being an active and encouraging subscriber since 2022. Please be sure to visit her lovely blog, always fresh with beautiful photography and poetry. She also offers a wonderful online, free devotional: “20 Days with I AM” which I printed (each day separately with full verses) and illustrated for my own continued pleasure. Thank you, again, LightWriter! You are a joy!
