Written August 1999
Continued…
So now, Lord, here I am at the creek again enjoying a bit off Your "medicine". My heart rejoices as I look up at the big, bright sun peeking through the trees as the wind gently blows the weeds along the bank and the cicada sing their song at high pitch. This must mean that it's going to be another HOT day. Yes it's the "time for the butterflies"-little ones fluttering here and there along the dry creek bed, and oh, here comes a big yellow and black swallowtail.
He stops to feed on the carrion there where the water used to flow, and this reminds me of the eight or nine I saw the other day, all huddled in one spot. It was an amazing sight to see! And now, Lord, as I walk down the creek bed, You bring along this frantic little butterfly who flies around and around and around me so fast that I can hardly see the little thing. Presently he lights on me – again… and then again…about five or six times. Finally, he sits on my hand
as I write, and as he touches me with his little probiscus, I notice on the underside of his wings the intricate dark brown spots surrounded with light brown rings and white dots in the centers. When he opens his wings from time to time, I revel in the beauty of his orange- brown bottom wings with dark brown spots and dark brown upper wings with the white spots. (Later I realize he looks somewhat like a Mountain Emperor minus the yellow spots.) Lord, what does this mean? I have never had a butterfly stay so long! He's been here on my hands for about ten minutes or more?! I move my hands back and forth and turn around so that I can look right into his eyes, and he doesn't fly away! That little probiscus just keeps moving! Lord, this is amazing! Surely it must be a "sign", a special evidence of Your love
for me!…Oh, here come my two little girls running to find me and to join in my creek bed "joys". I caution them to be quiet, and the little butterfly stays around long enough for them to look him in the eyes and even touch him. Now the girls are off chasing another Swallowtail spieces – yellow with lower markings of blue and orange. Back and forth, up and down the creek bed they run until they are distracted with the beauty of the brown butterfly with "special" orange markings. Soon they catch a tiny heart-shaped one, and up to
the house they go to put him in a jar to savor his "friendship" for awhile.
Lord, this bit of "medicine" – this trip to the creek this morning – has been SO special! Your words to me this morning were from Jer.
29:11-14:
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your CAPTIVITY…
and Is. 43:19-20:
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a WAY IN THE WILDERNESS, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the dessert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Now Jan Markel's poem from her book, Waiting For A Miracle, page 139, takes on even more meaning:
Small Miracles
Lord, how many miracles have I overlooked today?
Some of the greatest are the smallest…
A snowflake
A butterfly
A colored leaf
The fragrance of a flower…
Or, a smile from a friend on a mundane Monday…
A card received for no occasion,
But to tell me I was loved.
A spueeze of the hand.
A wink.
An arm around my shoulder.
Simple things.
Help me to listen to the silence, Lord,
And bask in the joy of simple things…
And the small miracles of life.
Amen.
I am using this with permission to personally to share with you, my friends, but please don't copy or forward.
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