God in the midst

"the message in the midst of the suffering"

1 Thessalonians 1:6

I had some visitors today, and their timing couldn't have been better.

Can you see that beautiful woodpecker there?  That's our apple tree.  We've been visited by this woodpecker about half a dozen times.   He is so stunning ~ sharply contrasting black and white, with a red cap.  And near as I can tell, he's a variety of woodpecker that doesn't normally hang around my area of the country.   So it's such a treat when he shows up.  He does a little pecking, but what he does more is sing.  A lovely little trill that I've come to recognize.

Well today, I got two emails within about half an hour, that were bad news for people close to me.  I breathed a heavy sigh, because both of them are friends who have been through a lot already, but then I prayed, knowing God has a plan, and it does not include faithlessness or discouragement on my part.

Taken by Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press

But then a few minutes later, I sat down to read,
and the book I'm in the middle of is James Bradley's Flags of Our Fathers.   It's about the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the six men who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

 Ultimately, it's a story of incredible valor and triumph, but not without an unbelievable amount of pain.  The U.S. capture of Iwo Jima resulted in some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific.  So it's a heavy, sobering read.

So I was feeling anything but light-hearted, when I heard a familiar sound out my window.  And I knew even before I looked, that my little woodpecker was back.

But when I got up to see him, I saw there were not one, but two woodpeckers!  He enjoyed the hospitality of our apple tree so much, that he brought a friend.  And I was struck with such an enormous sense of peace.  I love our apple tree, and the lovely shade it provides.  I love being able to see the leaves, and then the blossoms, and then the apples out my dining room window.  And I love seeing the butterflies and hearing the birds that come to spend time there.

But the woodpeckers are such an unexpected delight, so interesting and beautiful.  And I was reminded that there is no difficult situation that is not made lighter by realizing that God is there.  Beauty in the midst of a trial, is Him.  Laughter in the midst of sorrow, is Him.  A miracle in the midst of hopelessness, is Him.

He is in our midst.

~ "welcome the message in the midst of suffering, 

with the joy given by the Holy Spirit" ~

1 Thessalonians 1:6