Good morning, Dear Friends and Prayer Partners! This is the day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it! Well, another day with no rain, but I couldn't believe how hot and sticky the day is already, when it isn't even 10 AM, yet! Makes me thankful for A/C. Speaking of that, we have a house across the street that has something going on, we, the neighbors can't figure out. It is supposed to be foreclosed on, but people keep moving in and out and the current occupant is living without electricity and maybe without water. One friend thinks drug dealers are living there, but no one is there in the daytime, just evening. Who do I call?
Anyway, while looking outside the window yesterday, I saw a beautiful swallowtail butterfly fluttering back and forth. I think that is the first time I have seen a swallowtail around here. Fascinating!
When I went to the park yesterday, I saw a volunteer cleaning out the canal by the weir. He had a long instrument and was pulling all the trash out, so it looks a lot better. Hooray for him! It was hot work. The canal was still full and the water was rushing out downstream and probably overflowing the banks by the water control as it went out and under the interstate to Turner's Creek. That was a lot of rain that came down! God is good!
From the devotional book Quiet Moments with God:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:6 KJV
The orange kitten was hungry. The grizzly bear was lonely. The man was apprehensive.
The cat weighed no more than 10 ounces when he first slid under the fence into the bear's pen. The man was almost in a panic, thinking the hungry grizzly would kill him with one swat and eat him for dinner.
The grizzly, whose name was Griz, had come to the Oregon wildlife center in 1990, when he was just a cub. Hit by a train while foraging on railroad tracks in Montana, he suffered severe head injuries and was deemed unfit to return to the wild.
The Kitten was one of four kittens abandoned at the center early in the summer. Volunteers were able to find homes for the rest of the litter, but Cat, as he was now called, somehow eluded them.
Then, one day in July, Cat turned up in Griz's pen. Afraid to do anything that might alarm Griz, the man just watched, expecting the worst. As the 650 pound grizzly was eating his midday meal, something extraordinary happened. The bear very gently picked out a chicken wing with his forepaw and dropped it near Cat.
From that moment on, Griz and Cat became something of a slapstick animal act. Cat would lay in ambush, then leap out and swat Griz on his nose. Griz would carry Cat in his mouth. Cat would ride on Griz's back, and sometimes Griz would lick Cat.
Their friendly relationship defies both the patterns of nature, as well as their own troubled life histories. Griz never took advantage of Cat's weaknesses, and each animal has accommodated the other's needs.
What a lesson Griz and Cat offer! We can help each other break free from the patterns of our pasts that keep us from loving each other. As we pray for and care for others with the love of Jesus Christ, we obtain healing by the grace of God, both for them and ourselves!
Love is the by-product of
our capacity to give what
is deepest within ourselves
and to receive what is deepest
within another person.
LLoyd J. Averill
I always give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers with thanksgiving, joy and love!
Love and hugs,
Amaryllis
