Her beauty...His grace...brings comfort


Ahhhh... fall has arrived with lumbering tranquility.   The robins and other birds have already departed for warmer winter retreats.  It's so quiet and still.  My steaming coffee mug serves as a hand and nose warmer now as I bid farewell to summer from the serenity of the screen porch.

I wince at the sight of my spent flower gardens.   Yet ... there ... in the front row of summer's lead performers ... is one small pink chrysanthemum premiering brightly among her aging sister plants.
 
That 'lil mum there, well, she and I have enjoyed a special bond ... a comforts of grace bond.

After years of failed attempts to grow perennial mums, I'd almost given-up hope in my quest for much needed fall garden color.  However, last fall, empowered by internet research and a determined spirit, I purchased two pink and two yellow hybrid mums as soon as they arrived in the garden centers. As suggested, I promptly plopped them in the ground in hopes of encouraging root growth before winter.
 
This lone pink beauty is my first and only mum survivor of last winter.
 

I remember the sweet joy of her rebirth last spring among tulips and daffodils who were retreating from their earlier standing ovations.  
 
After taking the newborn picture below, I caught sight of a Grackle bird enjoying a lunch buffet of the young sprouts.   I growled and charged out the screen door like an angry mama bear to shoo the hungry beast away ~ just in time to save one tiny mum sprout from it's demise.



For five long months, the one lone mum sprout was nourished within her private shelter of bird netting and the encouraging canopy of her older big sisters.  


Her pink little petals shine brightly now ~ knowing she is lovingly created and nourished by her heavenly Father.   She is encouraged, supported and loved by her earthly caregivers and hopelifters.  Though her survival will not be without challenges for continued growth and maturity, she finds comfort in the guidance and protection orchestrated by the Lord.
 
Her beauty...His grace...brings comfort.  



Psalms 27:5,6 For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent;  He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

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