Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mercy Wakes the Dawn

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3:22-24


Every morning around 715am (what was 615am a few days ago!), he starts singing like a madman in our front yard oak tree. We've named our happy, crazy fellow. His name is Mercy, of course. I went out the other morning while it was still all blue and gray outside, to see if I could get a photo of him. No go, but I did watch him, perched and hopping in the top of the little oak, singing so loudly that it echoes through the neighborhood. I listened closely - he was the only one singing, though his song was so loud and so constant, you'd have thought many birds were waking the dawn with him. I am so happy God has sent this mockingbird to our tree! And to our chimney - lovely to have the sound blasting into the house from up there.

 I went to bed last night discouraged and crying after a day of what felt like utter failure at not living by my feelings and moods. I was very easily irritated all day, nervous-feeling, and definitely not patient in my spirit with the ups and downs of daily life. Certainly wasn't cheerful. I worked on my big closet-cleanout project and the Lord blessed the work of my hands - it is 90% finished and is refeshingly decluttered and organized. This is a mercy, for sure.


But by day's end, in bed, the tears came. And in the middle of them, my husband prayed - for me, for us, for holiness, for lives that glorify, that desire to glorify (sadly, too often, the desire is not there, or is pitifully weak) our Savior. How thankful I am for God's kindness in allowing comfort to come from BB, but more importantly that the comfort was pointed at Christ. I still needed to cry some more, but that sudden turning toward Him definitely stopped some of the crazier weepy thoughts in their tracks.

This morning began with that big-cry-hangover feeling (you know, the Why are my eyes all red and puffy and why do I feel so tired thing? Then, the Oh, yeah, I had a hard cry last night realization). One thing God reminded me of early was that it is better for me to feel sad and stumbly sometimes when I'm seeing my sin than it is for me to walk around in an oblivious, proud over-confidence, unaware of what needs addressing in my spirit if I'm to shine for Jesus.

Lord, let me not become hard or bitter when persevering toward holiness is hard or when the inevitable failures happen. Thank You for Your unfailing compassions. May I not be blinded by my disappointment in myself so that I don't see the light of Your patient, loving mercy always shining...

One more thing about Mercy the Mockingbird. I couldn't help but think about his happy-gorgeous loudness. May we sing like a madman for the King and our praises echo in our neighborhoods. God help us!

This is the reason I like close-up photos of nature so much. While the flowering tree is breathtaking to see after the long winter, it seems like the individual beauty of each blossom is lost unless we look up close. On this day, we'd had rain in the night, which made the flowers even more enchanting. I didn't realize this photo was out of focus till it was too late. Oh well!
*
A few more Mercies for the list:

91 A quote from CA, and a sign of the times: "I yike iPods" (she yikes a lot of things). Truly, having an iPod Touch has been a God-sent blessing (craigslist!), and has helped me to stay organized like never before since it holds my grocery list, to do list and more...no more paper-bit-reminders everywhere. CA yikes iPods because she can play a little painting game on mine from time to time. I'm a bit slow to accept technology...this was BB's wise idea for me.

92 balloons and balloon-happy-girl-squeals on a rainy day

93 BB's work-from-home days

94 closet mostly done

3 comments:

  1. Mercy, what a lovely name for a joyful bird that heralds the morning!

    I'm sorry it was a hard day, but praise God for His mercies that are new every, EVERY morning!

    Beautiful photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Waking up to the sound of birds singing outside is such a joyful way to wake up. That and daylight...I love it when it's daylight outside in the morning...because I don't wake up easily if it's not...you guys have seen me stumble around early in the morning.

    Thinking about a loving God creating something as small and insignificant as a bird, but making the sound of its song so life affirming is truly a picture of His mercy to us.

    ReplyDelete